‘Working for right balance in handling digital issues’

There is a draft legislation on which there will be debates and discussions, including in Parliament, and while people will have their views, the government’s endeavour will be to get the right balance, he said.

The government’s focus on handling digital matters is finding the right balance between ease of doing business, privacy and national security at a time when people are becoming more aware about how their data is being processed and handled, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

In his opening address at the Global Technology Summit 2022, Jaishankar said India shouldn’t limit its possibilities in the fast-changing field of emerging technology solely because of the country’s “difficult experiences” of the past due to sanctions imposed by the US. (HT Photo)

In his opening address at the Global Technology Summit 2022, Jaishankar said India shouldn’t limit its possibilities in the fast-changing field of emerging technology solely because of the country’s “difficult experiences” of the past due to sanctions imposed by the US. He pointed out that the US is now the “most forceful advocate” for India joining crucial arrangements such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

“What the Indian system today is doing is trying to find a balance between ease of doing business on the digital side, privacy and national security. They have to find the...right mix,” Jaishankar said.

There is a draft legislation on which there will be debates and discussions, including in Parliament, and while people will have their views, the government’s endeavour will be to get the right balance, he said. People are more aware about issues regarding how their data is being stored and who processes it, and this increases the importance of trusted and transparent partners, he added.

In a fundamentally competitive world, he said, international relationships are all about forging ties, building rules and the ability to work together. In this context, he referred to India’s engagement with the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Forum (IPEF) and the agreement between Foxconn and Vedanta for manufacturing semi-conductors.

Jaishankar also highlighted six points in his address at the Global Technology Summit, which is India’s annual flagship event on geo-technology that has been co-hosted by the external affairs ministry and Carnegie India since 2016.

He said technology is not agnostic and the country’s choices have strategic implications. “We have to stop pretending that there is something neutral about technology,” he added. Data is the “new oil” and there is a need to understand the strong political connotation inbuilt into technologies, he said.

Globalisation is all about the economy, technology and mobility, and the real debate now is between collaborative globalisation and one dominated by a few players, he said. The era of the Westphalian model of relations is over and trust and transparency are key in the field of technology, he said.

The “Nagoya model” of supply chain cooperation is under challenge, and resilience and reliability are essential in the era of Covid-19, conflict and climate change. In a world of civil-military fusion, the definition of strategic technologies has changed and the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiative is essential for strategic autonomy, he said.

Geopolitics comes down to partners and choices, and for India, the key partners in technology are those who give access, provide markets and collaborate, Jaishankar said.