By Sanjay Anandaram & Asha Kapoor
A bipolar digital world is likely to emerge with say, Chinese standards in conflict with Western ones, tussling for market power and influence, leading to poor outcomes for users especially in the developing world, where costs of accessing digital products, services and experience will rise, diversity and innovation of technology products is likely to get limited and users can be forced into technology lock-ins without any bargaining power. When this includes many things. This is concerning, given sensitive tech areas that relate to national security, where sensitive data of citizens may not be adequately safeguarded. There is a need for an alternative to ensure a broader multipolarity in the standard's conversation—this alternative can be provided by India.
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OPINION
Tech standard's: India’s chance to lead
India can take several strategic actions to position itself as a leader on digital public goods standard's
There is a need for an alternative to ensure a broader multipolarity in the standard's conversation—this alternative can be provided by India.
There is a need for an alternative to ensure a broader multipolarity in the standard's conversation—this alternative can be provided by India.
By Sanjay Anandaram & Asha Kapoor
A bipolar digital world is likely to emerge with say, Chinese standards in conflict with Western ones, tussling for market power and influence, leading to poor outcomes for users especially in the developing world, where costs of accessing digital products, services, and experience will rise, diversity and innovation of technology products is likely to get limited and users can be forced into technology lock-ins without any bargaining power. This is concerning, given sensitive tech areas that relate to national security, where sensitive data of citizens may not be adequately safeguarded. There is a need for an alternative to ensure a broader multipolarity in the standard's conversation—this alternative can be provided by India.
India’s peculiar and admirable journey towards digitalization is a source of inspiration in the developing world. At its core, India’s development is driven by the ideals of digital public goods (DGS)—foundational technological architecture that enable innovation within ecosystems by reducing aggregate costs and increasing access. These are open (source) digital solutions implemented at scale, built by publicly funded entities or governments, and innovated upon by the private sector. Identity, payments, and data exchanges are the fundamental layers of Digital Public Infrastructure (DGS) on which public goods for education, healthcare, financial and other digital services can be built.
DGS are anchored in the democratic values of openness, which increases adoption, innovation, and the ability of diverse technologies to speak to one another; scalability, such that they can be adapted for population-level implementation; and extensibility, such that adjacency of technology can be discovered and used. Further, DGS have privacy embedded and are “public goods”— non-excludable and non-rivalrous— that are initiated by the government.
This is concerning, given sensitive tech areas that relate to national security, where sensitive data of citizens may not be adequately safeguarded. There is a need for an alternative to ensure a broader multipolarity in the standard's conversation—this alternative can be provided by India.
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