Geopolitics Leadership Media Policy Security Technology

Out to Conquer!

Playing right, pursuing human centre policy framework with strategic independence will help Bharat regain its exalted status post G-20! K.A.Badarinath When Walter Russell Mead pointed to emergence of India as a world power after last week’s tremendously successful G-20 summit held under her Presidency, there were enough sneers and jeers from within the country. The learned professor for foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College in New York may have been amused at the way Indian opposition parties’ criticism of G-20 summit in New Delhi that whipped up ‘hundred per cent consensus” declaration. Mead, also a fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute was not out of place when he identified emergence of India as a world power as part of three tectonic shifts in global order. The celebrated Wall Street Journal columnist beautifully summed up the post-summit world order as, “India rising, China and Russia seething, Europe shrinking and America dithering…” This is not a solitary view that was available before, during or after the summit. African Union President Azali Assoumani went one step further to state that India has overtaken China as a super power that arrived on the global stage a few years back. Let’s consider Jim O Neill, celebrated economist known for having coined acronym BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) group of developing countries descrition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the ‘ clear winner’. Mead, Assoumani and O Neill may have differing views like several others on top global forums that would be relevant or those getting into diminution in medium to long term. Most were however were unanimous on India and Prime Minister Modi making the best out of G-20. And, they do not mince words on what holds out for India. G-7’s waning influence is something that’s written on the wall and one would only be blind not to see it given Europe’s decline and Canada being in irretrievable mess of sorts. BRIC, on the other hand, as visualized by Jim O Neill was different from what the grouping has emerged to be today. South Africa joining the group of large developing countries in 1999 was the first step towards its expanding arc of influence. Its first expansion however happened only last month when six countries were inducted as full members of BRICS turning it into leading to BRICS Plus. On the parallel, G-20 would have been dead and irrelevant in case there was nothing substantive to take home in the ‘New Delhi’ declaration running into 83-paras on a clutch of global issues. G-20 Plus emergence with joining of African Union has rendered this group ‘prima dona’ position in global sweepstakes on economic and development order. With Ukraine war becoming a sticking point in the negotiations, G-20 formally launched itself into realm of geo-political and security issues. This in turn led to expansion of its mandate albeit indirectly. Aging outfits like United Nations and its umbrella of organizations have lost sheen to these emerging stars like the BRICS Plus or G-20 Plus. Given the intransigence to reform, Britten Wood institutions like World Bank and IMF may have to make way for new kids on the block in the development finance space. Fresher organizations like Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), BRICS New Development Bank or proposed outfits for Green Energy financing may take the decades old multi-lateral funding institutions. Democratization of these organizations and reorienting them to finance developing and least developed countries is something Prime Minister Modi has been harping upon. With Western Europe especially Germany, France and Italy losing pole position, it’s no brainer to say that Bharat has taken centre stage in global engagement. Strategic independence in its foreign policy is something that has stood out big especially during last ten years. And, this open and flexible policy framework will work well at least another ten years. Not going the Russian or Western way on Ukraine war is an example to emulate going forward. Getting into one coterie or other is the easiest option that has been set aside by Prime Minister Modi and his point man Subramaniam Jaishankar and national security advisor Ajit Doval. One factor to watch out for is China, its expansionist drive financed by oligarchs close to the country’s communist party and President Xi Jingping’s insatiable urge for complete control within and outside. Over to Bharat! (author is Director & Chief Executive, Centre for Integrated & Holistic Studies, a non-partisan think tank based in New Delhi)

Technology World

561

Crude critical, data for development

G-20 can develop a global framework to deal with data to ensure inclusiveness, spread prosperity and contain rouge states K.A.Badarinath Data is the new oil for humanity in near future. There’s no escaping from this reality. As a consequence, data security, management and governance are the new focus areas for both governments and private enterprises globally apart from actual consumers. Data supremacy will determine the global leadership in short to medium term. Of late, this reality may have been camouflaged with huge talk on oil, natural gas assets, their ownership, pricing and access to these hydrocarbon energy products. On-going Ukraine – Russia conflict has brought hydrocarbons to centre stage. And, energy markets have gone through a churn and continue to give sleepless nights to governments, suppliers and consumers in Europe given the price embargo slapped by 27-nations EU and the powerful G-7. For countries like India that continue to be on high economic growth trajectory and spurt in energy needs, oil has become a key factor. China being in the dumps owing to recent surge in Covid 19 cases and not being able to track asymptomatic cases has not altered the conversation beyond energy. With a million barrels oil being imported each day and spending $ 100 billion annually, India has unsaturated demand for hydrocarbons to fuel its economy on course to catapult to $ 5 trillion in few years. But, this transient surge in demand for hydrocarbons should not take the emphasis away from data that’s key to economic expansion and holistic development in India. Data market in India is valued as a multi-billion industry and growing at a fast pace. This market is expected to grow manifold. For example, data centres alone that store and manage data in India have been projected to grow 15 per cent annually to US $ 10.9 billion in five years i.e. by 2027. Data analytics is big business in India expanding over 26.5 per cent annually and touched $ 40.22 billion this fiscal. Amidst deep dive digitization in several sectors including security establishments, huge investments are being made on data generation, storage, data engineering, big data, hyper-personalisation etc. Arguably, advances in internet of things, machine learning, big data analytics is driving the digital transformation process in firms, companies and services providers apart from governments as well as public offices. Data continues to be the centre piece of global negotiations and India is no exception to this irreversible phenomenon of data-centric world. Explosive amount of data worth 1.2 trillion to 59 trillion giga bites generated over last ten years makes data management a huge challenge given the implications for India’s defensive and offensive interests on socio-economic and strategic fronts. For instance, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das in a closed door meeting with select chief executives of financial technology companies pushed hard on data security and management as a big focal area. This is no pep talk as financial and business data along with consumer behaviour analysis determines market leaders for products and services. Unsolicited online Chinese loan frauds, online breaches reflect the data vulnerability India faces especially in financial services sector that’s on a big boom and expansion drive internationally. Over a fortnight long data-breach at All India Institute of Medical Sciences targeting its 100-odd servers seeking Rs 200 crore ransom in crypto currency by Chinese hackers backed by People’s Liberation Army is a case in point. This also highlights data security as a key element in India’s strategic and economic affairs. India’s financial capital Mumbai’s electricity systems and their data centres were targeted leading to massive outages in October 2020. Most intelligence reports pointed to PLA backed Chinese online hackers for this outage. In May this year, Chinese PLA arm reportedly led the Threat Activity Group 38 (TAG – 38) to bring down seven state load despatch centres in northern region this May with virtual squatting on the country’s power data centres is a grim reminder of data politics evolving internationally to settle scores. There are several such instances in last few years where India’s data has been targeted in key areas. On the other hand, data diplomacy plays a significant role in global engagement. India that recently assumed the Presidency of two powerful groups, G-20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organization for 2023 apart from 13-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has made “Data for Development” in this decade a key priority. Healthcare, education, food security and digital financial inclusion will be centre piece of India’s global engagement on data. Once this is achieved based on experiences in countries like India especially during and in the aftermath of Covid 19 pandemic, one can expect to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) much earlier. National Data and Analytics Platform set up by India can be leveraged to evolve a mechanism for data management globally. In this context, World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates of creating $ 100 billion worth economic activity through data generated by drones in just India in sectors like agriculture, smart cities leading to over half a million jobs creation. International regulations should reflect the new reality relating to data. From India’s perspective, notwithstanding breaches, it’s eminently empowered to deal with large data from development areas, financial and corporate world as well as government. The latest version of Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 has mooted the idea of a dedicated commission to deal with offenses relating to data that’s regarded ‘sovereign’ and distinctly different from ‘personal’ data. Penalties on individuals, companies and groups that violate data protection for commercial means or otherwise should be slapped based on the crime. Penalties should be directly proportional to the kind of violations detected by the commission. Secondly, defining ‘sovereign’ data for security purposes is paramount while ‘personal’ data privacy should be honoured. In this context, data fiduciary or purpose for which data is access should be determined. Anglo-Saxon laws on data protection may not work in the Indian context and this principle has been recognized in the new version of the bill. Housing data

Guest Column

953

Panch tatva philosophy to guide India’s G-20 Presidency

Push for partnerships, hope, harmony and healing. Decisive leadership voices policy against war, conflicts and confrontation Narendra Modi Today, India commences its G20 Presidency. The previous 17 Presidencies of the G20 delivered significant results — for ensuring macro-economic stability, rationalising international taxation, relieving debt-burden on countries, among many other outcomes. We will benefit from these achievements, and build further upon them. However, as India assumes this important mantle, I ask myself — can the G20 go further still? Can we catalyse a fundamental mindset shift, to benefit humanity as a whole? I believe we can. Our mind sets are shaped by our circumstances. Through all of history, humanity lived in scarcity. We fought for limited resources, because our survival depended on denying them to others. Confrontation and competition — between ideas, ideologies and identities — became the norm. Unfortunately, we remain trapped in the same zero-sum mindset even today. We see it when countries fight over territory or resources. We see it when supplies of essential goods are weaponised. We see it when vaccines are hoarded by a few, even as billions remain vulnerable. Some may argue that confrontation and greed are just human nature. I disagree. If humans were inherently selfish, what would explain the lasting appeal of so many spiritual traditions that advocate the fundamental one-ness of us all? One such tradition, popular in India, sees all living beings, and even inanimate things, as composed of the same five basic elements — the panch tatva of earth, water, fire, air and space. Harmony among these elements — within us and between us — is essential for our physical, social and environmental well-being. India’s G20 Presidency will work to promote this universal sense of one-ness. Hence our theme — “One Earth, One Family, One Future”. This is not just a slogan. It takes into account recent changes in human circumstances, which we have collectively failed to appreciate. Today, we have the means to produce enough to meet the basic needs of all people in the world. Today, we do not need to fight for our survival — our era need not be one of war. Indeed, it must not be one! Today, the greatest challenges we face — climate change, terrorism, and pandemics — can be solved not by fighting each other, but only by acting together. Fortunately, today’s technology also gives us the means to address problems on a humanity-wide scale. The massive virtual worlds that we inhabit today demonstrate the scalability of digital technologies. Housing one-sixth of humanity, and with its immense diversity of languages, religions, customs and beliefs, India is a microcosm of the world. With the oldest-known traditions of collective decision-making, India contributes to the foundational DNA of democracy. As the mother of democracy, India’s national consensus is forged not by diktat, but by blending millions of free voices into one harmonious melody. Today, India is the fastest growing large economy. Our citizen-centric governance model takes care of even our most marginalised citizens, while nurturing the creative genius of our talented youth. We have tried to make national development not an exercise in top-down governance, but rather a citizen-led “people’s movement”. We have leveraged technology to create digital public goods that are open, inclusive and interoperable. These have delivered revolutionary progress in fields as varied as social protection, financial inclusion, and electronic payments. For all these reasons, India’s experiences can provide insights for possible global solutions. During our G20 Presidency, we shall present India’s experiences, learnings and models as possible templates for others, particularly the developing world. Our G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow-travellers in the Global South, whose voice often goes unheard. Our priorities will focus on healing our “One Earth”, creating harmony within our “One Family” and giving hope for our “One Future”. For healing our planet, we will encourage sustainable and environment-friendly lifestyles, based on India’s tradition of trusteeship towards nature. For promoting harmony within the human family, we will seek to depoliticise the global supply of food, fertilisers and medical products, so that geopolitical tensions do not lead to humanitarian crises. As in our own families, those whose needs are the greatest must always be our first concern. For imbuing hope in our future generations, we will encourage an honest conversation among the most powerful countries — on mitigating risks posed by weapons of mass destruction and enhancing global security. India’s G20 agenda will be inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive. Let us join together to make India’s G20 Presidency a presidency of healing, harmony and hope. Let us work together to shape a new paradigm — of human-centric globalisation. (author is India’s Prime Minister and the write up coincides with India taking over presidency of G-20)

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Out to Conquer!

Crude critical, data for development

Panch tatva philosophy to guide India’s G-20 Presidency