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About the AuthorRohan Seth

The writer is a policy analyst at the technology and policy programme of The Takshashila Institution. The views expressed here are personal.

Weaken/remove encryption, and Facebook will instantly be branded Orwellian. Enforce encryption, and it becomes a lot harder to deal with bad actors on the platform. There are no winners here.

Tech This Week | Facebook services integration comes with trade-offs

Once WhatsApp and Instagram (and Oculus) became sufficiently big, it was time to integrate these properties into the...

4 Oct 2020 5:02 PM

Beverly Hills Polo Club (BHPC) approached the Competition Commission of India, claiming that Amazon had been indulging in anti-competitive practices.

Tech This Week | The need for anti-trust reform

Earlier this month, CCI dismissed an anti-trust case against Amazon.

29 Sept 2020 11:27 AM

ARM has a significant market share in network infrastructure, mobile computing processors, vehicles, and energy-efficient servers.

Tech This Week | With ARM in kitty, Nvidia most impressive firm you...

This deal is going to serve as an important development in the chip war being waged between the US and China.

19 Sept 2020 2:31 PM

The government should work promptly on consulting with industry players and civil society on changes that are required in the draft rules for e-pharmacies and notify them on priority. (Photo | Pixabay - Steve Buissinne)

Tech This Week | Regulating online pharmacies must be an inclusive...

The draft amendments and the e-pharmacy space needs to be more platform friendly as we advance.

12 Sept 2020 3:09 PM

No one ever is happy with the current amount of content moderation that platforms are undertaking. Some people think it is too little, while others think it is too much.

Tech This Week | Should India have its own social media content...

Platforms are diverse and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work.

5 Sept 2020 12:33 PM

The government has been keen on enabling partnerships between e-commerce companies and kirana stores to ensure better last mile delivery of goods.

Tech This Week | Amazon and Flipkart make lockdowns effective

The government has learned and moved on to appreciate the role of e-commerce in keeping citizens safe.

29 Aug 2020 11:07 AM

The CCIs basis for dismissal of the anti-trust case against Whatsapp is that UPI payments apps are an evolving market. But it does not appreciate the power of network effects and convenience enough. Yes, the payments feature is not going to be coerced onto users, but if Facebooks history is anything to go by, it might not make a difference.

Tech This Week | The UPI payments space is in for its biggest shift...

Earlier this week, the Competition Commission of India dismissed an anti-trust case against WhatsApp Pay.

22 Aug 2020 9:15 AM

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology published a programme that outlines incentives that focus on electronics manufacturing (of which semiconductors are a subset). However, none of the above has translated into a significant shift that puts India at a comparative advantage when it comes to semiconductor manufacturing. (Photo | Pixabay - Mika Mamy)

Tech This Week | Forget TikTok, what India must focus on is...

Where India could have leverage with China is not in manipulating ByteDance's revenues but if it got into the...

15 Aug 2020 10:34 AM

Companies providing goods and services that differ from the competition through application of non-personal data stand to lose their comparative advantage if the data is treated as a public good. (Photo | Flickr - Kevin Zollman)

Tech This Week | India needs to be more mindful in regulating...

If non-personal data is made subject to mandatory sharing, data businesses will begin classifying such data as personal.

8 Aug 2020 12:54 PM

Pressure has been growing both from the right and the leftand sometimes internallyto do something about the overwhelming dominance of the internet platforms. In this photo, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos. The four CEOs on Wednesday attended an antitrust hearing of the US House Judiciary Committee. (Photo | AFP)

Tech This Week | What we learned from the US antitrust inquiry

Lawmakers seem to be catching up with technology and so will regulation, so Big Tech should not take things for granted.

1 Aug 2020 10:47 AM

No other app store has entry barriers like Apple does. Developers can even choose to sidestep Googles Play Store to get to Android users but cant do the same with Apple.

Tech This Week | Apple's anti-trust hearing may be an exercise in...

Apple's app store holds a monopoly on iOS and as such app developers have no option but to pay the platform's commission...

25 July 2020 1:19 PM

The need of the hour is to put more power back in the hands of the users, and that begins with fiduciaries being more transparent with personal data. (Photo | Pixabay - Mohamed Hassan)

Tech This Week | The Personal Data Protection Bill in the context of...

When it comes to data breaches, the bill does not do nearly enough to put power back in the hands of the users.

18 July 2020 1:20 PM