Today my guest is Pranay Kotasthane who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme.

Pranay co-writes Anticipating the Unintended, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts Puliyabaazi, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - Missing in Action: Why Should You Care About Public Policy, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. He has co-edited India’s Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order.

Today we are discussing his most recent book, When the Chips Are Down, coauthored with Abhiram Manchi. We spoke the evolution of the semiconductor industry, industrial targeting, Moore’s law, Rock’s law, Taiwan’s Comparative advantage, whether India can lead in semiconductor chips and more.

Recorded March 12th, 2024.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:08:35) - Moore's Law

(00:14:08) - Rock's Law

(00:21:41) - Geopolitics of the Semiconducter Industry

(00:27:46) - Metacritical Technologies

(00:38:49) - Geographical Concentration

(00:48:34) - Zelenograd

(00:59:44) - Unease of doing Business in India

(01:09:45) - Industrial Targeting in Taiwan   

(01:30:57) - Outro

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