Technologies are already woven into every aspect of our life. They are transforming the way we work, we socialize, and we live. Many more of such transformational technologies are on the way. And every new technology and its applications will bring unique legal challenges.

At Nishith Desai Associates, we believe in helping shape the future of law through deep research and thought leadership. Towards fulfilling this mission, we have created this, Sprinting to the Future of Law series.

In each issue of this series, we will analyze an emerging, just-over-the-horizon technology and offer our insights on its possible applications and important legal and other considerations.

Light predates matter! About 13.8 billion years ago, just about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, a proton and an electron met to form an atom of hydrogen and in the process released a photon. This is how the first light in the universe was born.

In the last fifty years or so, we have learned to harness the power of light for the advancement of technologies and innovative applications that are brightening our life every day. All those technologies are classified as Photonics. In contrast to electronics-based equipment and networks, where information is transferred using electrons, in photonics-based devices, the information is transferred using light.

In this issue of our Sprinting to the Future of Law series, we look at what photonics is, various applications in which photonics is used, which foundational technologies are enabling them, four interesting specific use cases of photonics technology, what is happening in India in the area of photonics, which industries would be most interested in them, some legal and regulatory considerations with photonics-based devices, and some operational and environmental concerns with photonics.

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