Caption
A worker produces integrated circuit products in a workshop in Weihai, Shandong Province, China, on September 9, 2025. (Getty Images)
Caption
(Photo by SANJAY KANOJIA / AFP) (Photo credit should read SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP/Getty Images)
On November 29, Hudson Institute hosted Foreign Policy Magazine’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss his recent book, India Connected: How the Smartphone is Transforming the World's Largest Democracy. The discussion was moderated by Hudson Institute’s Director of South and Central Asia Ambassador Husain Haqqani.
In the year 2000, 20 million Indians had access to the internet. By 2017, 465 million were online, with three Indians discovering the internet every second – mostly on smartphones. One third of mobile phone users in India have a smartphone. The rise of smartphones, and with them access to the internet, has caused nothing short of a revolution in India. In the West, technological advances have progressed step-by-step:from landline phones, to dial-up connections on PCs, to broadband access, wireless, and now 4G data on phones. India leapfrogged straight to the smartphone era, disrupting centuries of tradition and barriers of wealth, language, literacy, caste, and gender.
Related Events
02
July 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Securing American Data: A Conversation with Congressman Nathaniel Moran
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Nathaniel Moran
Jason Hsu
02
July 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Securing American Data: A Conversation with Congressman Nathaniel Moran
Join Representative Nathaniel Moran (TX-01) for a fireside discussion with Senior Fellow Jason Hsu to discuss the congressman’s bill, H.R. 7509, the Deterring Adversarial Access to Americans’ Data Act, and Congress’s role in facilitating public-private understanding in an era of great power competition.
Featured Speakers:
Congressman Nathaniel Moran
Jason Hsu
02
July 2026
In-Person Event | Invite Only
The Eurasian Heartland Arrives: Kyrgyzstan’s Seat on the UN Security Council
Featured Speakers:
Ambassador Edil Baisalov
Ken Moriyasu
02
July 2026
In-Person Event | Invite Only
The Eurasian Heartland Arrives: Kyrgyzstan’s Seat on the UN Security Council
Ambassador Edil Baisalov, Kyrgyzstan’s newly appointed envoy to the United States and former deputy prime minister, joins Senior Fellow Ken Moriyasu for a conversation about why Kyrgyzstan sought this seat, how it campaigned, and what it hopes to accomplish.
Featured Speakers:
Ambassador Edil Baisalov
Ken Moriyasu
08
July 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
America’s Competitive Edge: Why Antitrust, Standards, and Intellectual Property Matter
Featured Speakers:
Urška Petrovčič
Dina Kallay
08
July 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
America’s Competitive Edge: Why Antitrust, Standards, and Intellectual Property Matter
Join us for an exclusive luncheon conversation with Dina Kallay—deputy assistant attorney general for international, policy, and appellate at the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division—and Urška Petrovčič.
Featured Speakers:
Urška Petrovčič
Dina Kallay
10
July 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Taiwan’s Institutional Defense: Countering CCP Infiltration and Transnational Repression
Featured Speakers:
Kai-Chieh Hsu
Miles Yu
10
July 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Taiwan’s Institutional Defense: Countering CCP Infiltration and Transnational Repression
Join Hudson Institute’s China Center as Miles Yu hosts a panel examining Taiwan’s experience in handling national security cases, foreign interference, technology theft, election influence, proxy networks, and gray-zone legal warfare.
Featured Speakers:
Kai-Chieh Hsu
Miles Yu
Related Research
Caption
A Chinese yuan banknote on a world map in March 2026. (Getty Images)
Caption
President Reagan speaks about taxation programs for the private American citizens in July 1981. (Getty Images)
Caption
A man walks near the headquarters of the Russian Central Bank in Moscow on February 13, 2026. (Getty Images)
