Prateek Waghre

Some of you are very pessimistic, so I am just here to remind you that if you think things are bad now, please wait 5-10 years.

Again, it has been quite something to see the US speed-running the last decade in India.

After reviewing January 2026’s (and all of 2025, 2024, 2023, …) performance I have decided to retire the phrase “happy new year” for good.

Going to say “Meet new year, worse than old year” from next year because we already know.

Reading the news and wondering if Heckler's Veto was a country, what would it be called?

subplot to this is that while @mmasnick.bsky.social's post is up. The CNET article linked to as the source has been lost to linkrot.

How old are you?

Good times for big countries with poor records on rights domestically.

*part of the world

🤦‍♂️

Wild how much executive discretion the american president seems to have. In this part of world, we at least had the decency to hollow out institutions over decades / or never build them out in the first place.

Recreated last year, and I’m afraid I’ve already set off a chain of events which suggests 2026 is going to 2026 harder than 2025 2025-ed. You’re welcome.

Waiting for go(od people of the silent majority to say “Not in my name”)dot, after looking at the news + my social media feed.

But as the lyrics of Rocket Man go - "... and I think it's going to be a long, long time."

I wrote about the many problems with such proposals (both proximate and precedent-setting) in my most recent piece for @techpolicypress.bsky.social

www.techpolicy.press/india-overst...

...while tremendous leeway is accorded to the state, which offers limited, if any, reciprocity by way of offering evidence, reason, operating with transparency, and abiding by due-process. We need to (figuratively) turn this around.

GoI, across interventions, operates as if every person in India is an offender/criminal and works backwards from there. This is part of a phenomenon I describe as the "inverted republic," where burdens, obligations, and scrutiny of actions is disproportionately directed at people,...

India Oversteps and (Partially) Backtracks on Plans to Intrude into Mobile Devices | TechPolicy.Press In its bid to address fraud and cybercrime, India chose an approach that regards every person in the country as a potential offender, writes Prateek Waghre.

Between the Sanchar Saathi pre-installation + SIM binding orders by DoT, and reports that GoI is reviewing a telecom industry proposal to keep location tracking on mobile devices permanently enabled there is a lot to be concerned about. www.techpolicy.press/india-overst...

Caught in an endless loop of feeling i don’t have enough time to do the things I want/have/need to do, concluding the answer lies in waking up at 5 AM, failing to do that and then feeling like i don’t have enough time to do the things…

Never has been clear to me why we're any more deferential to politicians/bureaucrats (irrespective of perceived importance/seniority) than we would be to a neighbour (with whom there are no conflicts).

Curious to see how our public policy circles respond to INC’s voter fraud allegations in the coming days. Like if we aren’t able to ask for institutional accountability unequivocally at this stage (already years too late) why are we even here (claiming to be) doing whatever it is we’re doing.

India’s Search for Digital Sovereignty | TechPolicy.Press Prateek Waghre discusses India’s push for tech sovereignty amid volatile US ties, digital dependence, and global shifts in trade.

...In fact, based on the current trajectory, this contestation is leading to a loss of human agency, and that’s where the real challenge lies."

In my most recent piece for @techpolicypress.bsky.social.
www.techpolicy.press/indias-searc...

"Conversations about 'internet sovereignty' should not mistakenly assume that the exercise of sovereign state power over corporations will necessarily translate into greater agency for its people...

Don’t internet things that don’t need interneting.

Anyone know what happened to the “smart locks” that were affected? Were people locked in/out/both/neither?

Should have been called the summer i turned pretty melancholic, because what is this emotional rollercoaster.

It seems amazing and confounding to me that we’re collectively and willingly compounding the inscrutability of information retrieval, distribution and consumption mechanisms with more inscrutability of information generation mechanisms.

Many around the world trust their own country's ability to regulate the use of Al effectively % who have _ in their country to regulate the use of artificial intelligence effectively

It is really not clear to me what GoI has done to earn this much trust on the question of AI governance. What explains this?

www.pewresearch.org/...

Screenshot showing difference in actual causes of death vs what gets covered in the media in the US.

I think this is extensible to other subjects and regions, and has so many implications for framing and public discourse.

ourworldindata.org/d...

Is there a mailing list I can sign up for to get it when it comes out? :P

Too many of you are doing too many important stories that I cannot read/keep up with. No, don't slow down, keep at it. Thanks!

I think lean towards to the publisher framing v/s subscribe is probably a better description of where I am.

...I subscribe to the "publisher" framing. I am (potentially) oversimplifying here, so listen to the whole conversation.

@jmiers230.bsky.social - if there's a public draft of the paper you referenced, would love to read it.

Really good conversation between @alanrozenshtein.com @jmiers230.bsky.social and @noupside.bsky.social.

Esp. 40mins onwards where they really nerd out on the broader question of liability of generative ai speech. Flagging that I am a bit biased here, since ...

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/scal...