Articles

Hydroxychloroquine: Pandemic, Parasites and Politics

Radhika Daga, Research Assistant, VIF Commentary

In this six month long mercurial quest for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, winners are far from declared. Among the various antiviral treatments tested or deployed to inhibit the viral growth, hydroxychloroquine has had an unparalleled....

June 22, 2020 Technological and Scientific Studies , Commentary , artificial intelligence , Donald Trump , Coronavirus , COVID-19 , Hydroxychloroquine , Vaccines , ICMR , Science

Regulating the Use of Autonomous Weapon Systems

Mayuri Mukherjee Commentary

Instead of worrying about technical definitions, focus on how humans can retain control over their machines Terminators running amok; the wanton killing of human beings; the end of civilisation as we know it; these a....

May 19, 2020 International Relations and Diplomacy , Commentary , artificial intelligence , Lethal autonomous weapons , Emerging technologies , UN CCW , International humanitarian law

COVID-19 International Developments: Daily Scan, May 11, 2020

Prerna Gandhi, Associate Fellow, VIF COVID-19 Daily Scan

Medical

Physicians report numbers of patients who are able to tolerate very low blood-oxygen levels

Doctors have dubbed these patients “happy hypoxemics,” a reference to the paradox of abnormally low levels of oxygen foun....

May 11, 2020 International Relations and Diplomacy , artificial intelligence , Africa , NATO , COVID-19 , COVID-19 Daily Scan , Daily scan , Ventilators , Semiconductor Chips , Cyber attacks , Mount Everest , Negative interest rates

Experiments & Applications: S&T in Coronavirus Pandemic

Radhika Daga, Research Assistant, VIF Article

Throughout the history of pandemics, technology has played its role in many ways in proliferating infectious diseases to a wider area. However, it’s the same science and technology (S&T) research and innovations that also provide a way out of such ....

April 25, 2020 Technological and Scientific Studies , Article , artificial intelligence , Coronavirus , COVID-19 , Telemedicine , Antibody Test , Biotechnology , Epidemiology

Drone Swarms -a Growing Lethality…. Where is the World? Where are We?

Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Distinguished Fellow, VIF Article

The credit of using the unmanned platform for the first time goes to Austria, when in1849 it attacked the Italian city of Venice using unmanned balloons loaded with explosives¹. Surely, the Austrian warriors could have never imagined that ....

April 06, 2020 National Security and Strategic Studies , Defence , Article , artificial intelligence , Air defence , Drone swarms , drone capabilities , UAV-X , Kamikaze drone , autonomous warfare , weaponised drones

Technology 2019: Another Year of Breakthroughs

Radhika Daga, Research Assistant, VIF Article

Introduction

The world is at the cusp of Fourth Industrial Revolution. 2019 has emphasised on the opportunities and growth from a sound digital economy. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Internet of Things (IOT)....

January 17, 2020 Governance and Political Studies , Article , artificial intelligence , science and technology , Industry 4.0 , Digital India Biotechnology

Artificial Intelligence, Communication and Big Data for Information War

Brig (Dr) Ashok Pathak Article

The Issue

The combination of two words information and war into a phrase Information War (IW) does not convey much if taken in isolation. The concepts and theories that have been built around it bring out the idea, components and strategi....

March 14, 2019 Technological and Scientific Studies , Article , artificial intelligence , Big Data , Information Warfare

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Changing the Nature of War?

Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd), Consultant, VIF Article

Introduction

The professional military body differentiates between an objective nature and a subjective character of war by drawing upon Clausewitz. Nature of war describes what war is and character of war describes how it is actually fou....

January 18, 2019 National Security and Strategic Studies , Defence , Article , artificial intelligence , Nature and character of war

Commentary: Some Niche Areas in Unmanned Operations and Technologies and Equipment in Support

Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Distinguished Fellow, VIF Commentary

Propelled by their enabling combat virtues like all-weather all-terrain operability, comprehensive mission spectrum, long ranges, tremendous endurance, precision strike capability and weapon loads that will give a run for their money to the combat p....

February 27, 2018 Technological and Scientific Studies , Commentary , Unmanned aerial systems , artificial intelligence , SWARM attack

Commentary: First Ever Swarm Attack has Happened

Lt Gen (Dr) V K Saxena (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Distinguished Fellow, VIF Commentary

'We knew this day was coming' – Anon Open sources are reporting that the Russian air base at Khmeimim and Tartus naval facility in West Syria have been struck on 05 Jan 18 by a SWARM of home-made drones. This is the first time that such a....

January 19, 2018 Technological and Scientific Studies , Commentary , Unmanned aerial systems , swarm tactics , artificial intelligence