Karthik Nachiappan

Expert Overview

Karthik Nachiappan is a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore with a joint appointment at the NUS South Asian Studies Programme.

His current research focuses on the international political economy of technology in India, specifically the regulation of issues like data, cybersecurity, social media and artificial intelligence and how policies influence India’s positions on global rules covering these technology issues.

He also maps how and where technology issues like 5G and cybersecurity intersect with the ‘Indo-Pacific’ strategy that manifests through dyads, mini lateral and regional frameworks. His current work adds to a longstanding research focus that tracks and explains India’s approach toward global governance, particularly issues like climate change, global health and trade.

His book Does India Negotiate? (Oxford University Press, 2020) revises existing views on India’s multilateral behaviour that scholars generally claim is prickly, obstructionist and defensive. By empirically unpacking how India negotiated four particular international rules – Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Framework Convention on Climate Change, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Uruguay Round Trade Agreement, the book shows that India’s multilateral record since the early 1990s is more nuanced than understood.

He is an alumnus of the Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance (2013) and regularly writes on global governance issues and rising powers for publications including The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Mint, The Print and Open Canada.

He also hosts the Lekh Podcast which features conversations with authors who have published books on South Asia.

He received his PhD in South Asian Studies from King’s College, University of London and has a B.A in Public Policy and Politics from the University of Toronto.

Previously, he worked for the Global Issues Team at UNDP China in Beijing and the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore.

He is currently based in Singapore with his spouse, daughter, and chocolate labrador, and hails from Vancouver, Canada.