Indo-Pacific 5×5: Daily geopolitics newsletters & downloads
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Indo-Pacific Insight
Geopolitics, emerging risks, supply chains…
Fostering Order in the Indo-Pacific: What the European can learn
December 2024
- India: A brief intro to Nunam, a startup supported by Audi Environmental Foundation working on renewable energy storage systems based on upcycled, waste lithium-ion batteries / full item
- India Accelerator has launched Cohort’25 with up to $10M in funding commitments, looking to accelerate 30-35 startups across emerging tech sectors / full item
- India: Mindgrove Technologies fabless semiconductor design firm raised $8M Series A, targeting sales of its first chip and following Secure IoT system-on-chip launch / full item
“India’s chip market is projected to grow 17% annually and reach approximately $80BN by 2028… lagging behind Taiwan, China and South Korea, but remarkable considering India’s starting point.” / full item
- India’s Micromax mobile phone firm partners Taiwan’s Phison chips maker to develop high-end storage products for enterprise, automotives, and AI models / full item
- India: Government’s Centre for Development of Telematics partners Trois Infotech for ‘Face Recognition Using Drone’ technology / full item
- Indian troops find Starlink-like satellite internet device alongside weaponry in Manipur, likely used to circumvent conventional ‘net restrictions with satellite communications / full item
- A brief overview of the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, in the Himalayas, identified as the nation’s most suitable location for ground-to-sat quantum communications / full item
- India inks $2M agreement with Int’l Solar Alliance to establish solar projects in Comoros, Fiji, Madagascar, and Seychelles / full item
- India: Netrasemi semiconductor firm secured $1.8M pre-A with machine learning-focused system-on-chip designs, targeting enabling edge-AI computing / full item
- India: What is the ONDC, India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce, and what does it aim to deliver? / full item
- India: A brief look at the nation’s moves to boost national compute capacity, in response to the need to be a producer and provider of technology, rather than just a consumer / full item
- A quick overview of the Digital India initiative, boosting digital, physical and electric infrastructure in order to develop the country’s e-commerce opportunities / full item
- India: 4 key observations on the country’s entrepreneurship and startup ecosystems, from the World Economic Forum / full item
- India: An overview of the Shakti semiconductor fabrication plant, a joint initiative between India’s Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force / full item
- India: Medial secures $500K pre-A with professional networking platform with features including Startup Showcase, and claiming over 10K daily active users / full item
- India: Hyperloop test track of 410 meters has been completed in Chennai, with final speeds potentially up to 1100kph, about 683mph / full item
- India: Gov’t of Andhra Pradesh inks MOU with Google Cloud to boost AI adoption, innovation, skills development, and the AP startup ecosystem / full item
- Space Machines Co, an Australia-India in-space servicing firm, inks agreement with UK’s Lúnasa for space debris imaging systems, and satellite orbit and manoeuvring / full item
“Indian police will seek details from… Starlink… to hunt down drug smugglers who used its satellite internet device to navigate deep seas and bring meth worth $4.25BN into Indian waters…” / full item
- ADB and Mastercard Impact Fund ink MOU to provide financing for women-led or -owned MSMEs in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam / full item
- India: Telecoms regulator rolls out new rules to protect critical infrastructure networks; obligation to provide user data to authorities raises significant concerns, however / full item
- Thailand: India’s Wipro, Thailand’s SIAM AI, and NVIDIA partner for ‘Sukjai’, AI-driven digital assistant enhancing domestic and international tourist experiences / full item
CSEP India: Thinking about India’s Future
November 2024
- India: TakeMe2Space preps India’s first AI lab for orbit in December, aiming to demonstrate real-time data processing in orbit, making research more affordable and accessible / full item
- India: Central bank to launch a 2025 trial, offering cloud data storage to financial firms at affordable prices via domestic hosts, in bid to counter dominance of global firms / full item
- India: Dept of Science & Tech has selected 8 firms for support under National Quantum Mission and National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems / full item
- Download: ‘Emergence of co-lending business models in India – Opportunity for FinTechs’ from PwC / full item
India: “The overall Indian public cloud services market is expected to reach $24.2 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 23.8% for 2023-28.” / full item
- India: A brief intro to the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay, a government-aligned initiative that has run for 20 years / full item
- The India Venture Debt Report 2024 is available now: ‘Silent Bloom – Venture Debt’s Growing Influence’ / full item
- India: Addverb Technologies moves into robotics, unveiling 2025 plans for AI-driven, 5G-enabled humanoid robots for use in defense, retail, space and more / full item
- India: Kratos Gamer Network raised $10M, taking valuation to $500M, with Web3 solutions for gaming companies / full item
- India: PierSight preps Varuna satellite for in-orbit demonstration, aiming for 24/7 all-weather maritime surveillance / full item
- Download: ‘Skyways to the Future – Operational Concepts for Advanced Air Mobility in India’ from the World Economic Forum / full item
- SpaceX launched its first mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation, delivering a 4700kg satellite to orbit in the 3rd scheduled SpaceX launch in 24 hours / full item
- India is now planning to build a moon-orbiting space station by 2040 as part of roadmap to establish a long-term Indian presence beyond Earth orbit / full item
- India: Airbound drone delivery startup raises $1.7M, initially focusing on medical deliveries, and with sights on later expanding into sectors including food and groceries / full item
- India’s Tata Group seals JV with Taiwan’s Pegatron to Tata’s iPhone manufacturing, with Tata taking 60% and adding to Tata’s Karnataka and Tamil Nadu plants / full item
- India Accelerator, multi-stage fund-led accelerator and coworking space operator, launches $500K coworking facility in Pune, 5th-largest startup ecosystem in South Asia / full item
- India: ePlane Company eVTOL startup raised $14M, targeting manned air taxi testing by mid-2025 / full item
- Cyber fraud is mounting in India to the point where the Indian government estimates it could amount to 0.7% of the country’s GDP — over $14 billion — within the next year… / full item
- India: Odisha state startup, Bon V Aero, launches Air Orca, a fully autonomous logistics drone service, focusing initially on post-disaster support and delivery services / full item
- Indian Coast Guard commences construction on $70 million Mahipalpur data center, connecting 109 offices and 88 ships / full item
- India: Gujarat rolls out India’s first dedicated state-level semiconductor policy, with expected jobs boost of up to 53,000 / full item
- An overview of the challenges North East India’s startup ecosystem faces, from funding to geography / full item
- Download: ‘Advancing India’s AI Skills – Programs and Initiatives Needed’ from NASSCOM & Deloitte / full item
“…the semiconductor market in India, currently valued at $23.2 Bn, is predicted to reach $80.3 Bn by 2028.” / full item
- A deep dive opinion piece comparing developer costs in outsourcing tech work to India versus Vietnam / full item
India: “CBDCs can do whatever cryptos do. In fact, CBDCs have more benefits than cryptos, minus the risks associated with private cryptocurrencies” / full item
- Over the last decade Singapore has received the most investment from Australia overall, representing 52% of Australia’s outgoing tech investment. / full item
Instant payments are rapidly replacing cash in developing markets… In India, the share is expected to decline from 23% of consumer spending to less than 10% by 2028. / full item
ORF: A New EU-India Strategic Agenda in 2025
October 2024
- India: Karnataka state gov’t unveils ELEVATE 2024, a grant-in-aid seed funding scheme for early-stage startups, and KAN acceleration network / full item
- India: Hanooman AI launches Everest 1 multilingual LLM, a model supporting 35 languages currently and with plans for 90, built with NVIDIA partnership / full item
- India continues space position with Chandrayaan-4 mission targeting a lunar south pole landing for samples collection, potentially in 2028 / full item
- Video: A 25-minute look at India’s fast-growing space industry, from Bloomberg / full item
- India: Kerala Startup Mission partners with and invests $1.8M in Transition VC fund, looking to accelerate clean energy and decarbonisation startups / full item
- India: IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, gains regulator approval for IndiGo Ventures venture capital fund, with sights on pre-A, A and B Series tech and aviation investments / full item
- Download: ‘India’s Generative AI Startup Landscape 2024’, an October 2024 report from NASSCOM / full item
- India looks to auction, not allocate, satellite spectrum for sat-delivered internet, raising possibility of Starlink service alongside home-grown Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries / full item
“Satellite internet market in India is set for growth and has the potential to generate US$1 billion revenue in the near future.” / full item
- India: Space Based Surveillance project approved for Phase 3 launch of 52 AI-backed satellites over 5 years to boost land and sea surveillance capabilities / full item
- Reserve Bank of India Governor sees risk in financial services adoption of AI tech, both in concentration of tech providers and in vulnerabilities to cybercrime / full item
- Space Kidz India launches ShakthiSAT, a globally-minded initiative to train 12000 female high school students in aspects of space technology / full item
- India: Star Health & Allied Insurance confirms data breach, with hackers releasing data of 31M policyholders, over 5.8M claims, full names, addresses, medical reports and more / full item
- India’s first energy transition-focused startup accelerator preps for its first cohort, targeting startups in decarbonisation, energy storage, ‘new energies’ and related fields / full item
- India joins Minerals Security Partnership, US-led coalition of 14 countries and the European Union aiming to expand, diversify and stabilize critical minerals supply chains / full item
- India: IG Drones secures $1M with focus on AI-backed drone tech for defense, with sights on an additional $3M fund-raise in the next 6 months / full item
“India-based IC design startup L&T Semiconductor Technologies revealed it’s developing 15 products, which will be mass-produced in two years…” / full item
- India: Tech Mahindra looks to 2nd release of Project Indus LLM, working with NVIDIA to process multiple Indic languages and dialects with a focus on Hindi’s 37+ variations / full item
- India: AdOnMo ad-tech raised $25M with network of 50K cloud-connected digital screens, targeting growth to 100K hyperlocal advertising screens across 40 cities / full item
- India: Tata Group continues global semiconductor supply chain bid with subsidiary semicon plant in Kerala, in partnership with Taiwan’s PSMC / full item
- L’Oréal Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program selects 4 Singapore startups and 4 from India for finals, working in customer-serving technologies and insights / full item
“Central & Southern Asia and Oceania is the 3rd-largest crypto region… accounting for more than $750.0 billion in crypto asset inflows between July 2023 and June 2024…” / full item
- Australia’s NSW Gov’t partners India’s Afthonia Labs incubator for accelerator to help NSW startups enter and thrive in Indian markets, selecting 8 fintech firms for cohort 1 / full item
- Singapore’s Princeton Digital Group data centre firm acquires powered land for 500MW capacity expansion, adding new facilities in India, Malaysia and Indonesia / full item
Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (pdf link)
