Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director, the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi

Introduction

The clutch of new technologies invented over the last few decades has revolutionised governance, transportation, commerce, communications, delivery, and nearly all aspects of our lives. Vast opportunities have opened up in enhancing prosperity and security. At the same time, many challenges have arisen. The protection of critical infrastructure in the face of cyber of attacks; likely joblessness on account of increased automation; change in the nature of workplace due to 3-D printing are some of these. The question is what should be our coping strategies? I would like to examine this question in the Indian context.

Technology as a Provider of Solutions

India is using technology to meet the challenges of development and national security on a big scale. In India technology is seen in a positive light, as a provider of solutions to society’s problems. Prime Minister Modi’s strong thrust on technology as a solution provider is well-known. It is reflected in the headline programmes of the Government like the ‘Digital India’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Stand-Up India’, ‘Jan Dhan–Aadhar- Mobile Numbers (JAM), etc. Digital India programme is a huge effort to deliver services to the poorest sections of society. E-governance is becoming a norm. The potential of space, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), transportation, agriculture, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and genetics is being used to accelerate development. Quantum technology is being seen as the new frontier of technology which has the potential to create changes similar to changes brought about by the invention of electricity. Technology is also being used to fight corruption, bring efficiency, meeting the energy needs of the country. Technology is no longer elitist. Efforts are being made to make its benefits available to everyone. The government is going ahead with massive investments in these sectors to leverage the potential of these technologies. The idea is not only to provide solutions but also to make these technologies available to everyone.

Some of the achievements of the Government are financial inclusion, use of ‘Aadhar’ in the delivery of services, digitalisation of financial transactions, use of e-government platform and instruments of mass media like radio and TV to reach out to people. Similarly, on the national security front, the use of technology is increasing. The armed forces, the police, the border guarding forces are being modernized. The government’s ‘Make-in-India’ programme is aimed at manufacturing high technology equipment in India.

What is heartening to note is that there is a mindset change in the country. It is widely accepted that technology can be used to deliver growth, law and order, health, safety, security, and justice. It offers solutions to the common problems of people. Indian youth has shown that it is tech-savvy. Even illiterate and less educated people are taking to technology and the solutions it offers. Post-demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), technology is being used extensively in payment systems. Most people are comfortable with ATMs and net banking. The use of technology in rural areas is also increasing. The government has taken steps to reach technology to panchayat levels.

India is not new to technology. In fact, there is a long and proud history of Indian contribution to science and technology since ancient times. Ancient Indian literature is replete with examples of the high level of understanding of mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, medicine etc. it was unfortunate that during the centuries when India had succumbed to foreign invasions and was colonized, the momentum was lost. In the 21st Century, India is catching up.

Nature of Technology Challenges

However, the nature of the technological challenge in the 21st Century is different. First, the center for fundamental scientific advances and technology still remains the West. Most fundamental discoveries are made mostly in the west and majority of patents are taken out in the west. The situation is changing a little bit. Developing countries still have a lot of catching up to do. In the earlier times, there were no Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and no restrictions on the sharing of scientific and technological knowledge. Today, it is the IPRs that govern the movement of technology.

Second, science and technology are inextricably mixed up with politics. Sanctions on a country imposed due to political reasons can devastate a country’s economy. Export control regimes in place restrict the sharing of technology. India has been at the receiving end of sanctions, particularly on its scientific entities. The trend of sanctions will only grow in the future as more and more technologies are developed. In areas such as cyberspace, which thrive on inter-dependence, imposing export controls on cybersecurity products could prove counter-productive.

Third, the vast populations of developing countries are being used as markets for scientific and technological products. The big companies which have the capacity to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on scientific research own most of the knowledge being generated. They are the ones who use countries like India as vast markets and source of talent. Some of these companies spend more on R&D than the GDP of some countries. They are extremely powerful and growing even more so. Internet giants today are the repository of most of the data generated in the world. In today’s world data is power. Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to undertake big data analytics has made data as important a resource as rare earth’ or strategic minerals. Death by Data is a new possibility.

Large companies are using the developing countries to source talent and cheap rates. While many multinationals have opened their R&D centers in India where lakhs of the brightest of Indians are working, the fact is that these companies are producing for global markets and for them, India is just another market. While Indian R&D labs, most of them in public sector, have indigenously developed technologies, these cannot be marketed because of the deficiencies in our own systems. The lack of innovation eco-system in India seriously hinders the development of its own high-tech products.

Fourth, the new technologies are changing the socio-economic and political milieu leading to contestations between different interest groups. Already, the internet, the social media has changed social behavior and brought not only new opportunities but also challenges. The privacy concerns have become paramount in the era of mass surveillance and big data. The Internet is no longer a safe place for the user. The issue of privacy has been discussed at length in the country. A Supreme Court bench has given its verdict. ‘Right to Privacy’ is inherent in every article of the Indian constitution. The law enforcement agencies will have to find ways to cope up with the judgment on privacy.

Fifth, cyber security deserves special mention. The concerns about cybercrime, infrastructure protection, cyberwarfare, autonomous systems are real. Cyber security is today the biggest issue on international security agenda, bigger than that of proliferation. The infrastructure of delivery, the hardware, and the software, is inherently vulnerable. This raises the question of personal safety and security, security of critical infrastructure, etc. There are no rules or the norms of behavior. The disagreements among nations on how to deal with cyberspace reflect the underlying insecurity everyone is facing, including the most powerful countries. Imagine what the situation will be when hundreds of billions of interconnected devices will become common in the next few years. The consequences of the age of ‘Internet of things’ (IOT), or autonomous systems working independent of human control, are unimaginable. This is to be seen in the context of the widely feared job losses which the AI will bring in its wake. It is no surprise that one of the themes of discussion at the World Economic Forum meeting in early 2017 was on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on jobs and employment.

Sixth and last but not least, technology is impacting national security considerations fundamentally. The global battlespace is becoming increasingly transparent due to modern surveillance and reconnaissance technologies including those from space. The radicalisation of individuals through cyberspace is emerging as a major threat. The maritime dimension of terrorism is gaining significance in Jihadi magazines like the ‘Dabiq’ (ISIS) and ‘Resurgence’ (Al Qaeda). Easy availability of technologies like GPS receivers, satellite phones and Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) is making navigation, command & control and targeting of vessels easier.

Af-Pak groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Hijbul Mujahideen continue to raise funds through front organisations including digital channels. Dark Net and deep web constitute over 90 percent of the Internet. This is exploited by the terrorists. Virtual currencies like Bitcoins pose new challenges. Terror organisations use technology in almost every stage of the terror cycle including propaganda, radicalisation, communications, recruitment, training, planning, funding and even execution of terror attacks.

Coping Strategies

The challenge for policymakers include the need to: (1) keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies; (2) build capabilities for law enforcement; (3) protect critical infrastructure; (4) devise counter-radicalisation strategies; (5) resolve jurisdictional issues; (6) ensure monitoring; and (7) deal with legal challenges. All these elements have a strong technology element in them. Police reforms and modernisation have proceeded slowly. The issue of training of police and armed police requires serious attention.

So what is that India should do to meet these challenges and also to harness the vast potential of these technologies:-

• Become a provider of technologies rather than remain a mere consumer. This will require a fundamental shift in our thinking and behavior. Government and private sector should work together. Learn from the experience of other countries, particularly China in this regard.
• Revise the science and technology policy of 2013. It is an incomplete document lacking ambition. Bring it line with our national priorities. Prepare a strategy and a roadmap to make India a science and technology power ranking in top 5 by 2025 and top three by 2035.
• Overhaul the education system. Make it accessible to everyone. The present model is highly defective and elitist. The present system is faulty. Only the richest have access to the best education. This should change. The talent is in the vast sections of the underprivileged. They should have unfettered affordable access to the highest quality education.
• Develop the eco-system of innovation in which the gap between academia, industry and the government is bridged. Incentivize start-ups, MSMEs and venture capital funding.
• Spend more on R&D but in a judicious manner. Presently we spend less than a percent of GDP on R&D. This should be increased to 2 percent in a gradual manner and according to a strategy and plan. The entire R&D policy needs a relook. Link up R&D with socio-economic priorities of the country.
• Focus on technologies which improve agriculture, food, water, clean energy, health, disasters, education, housing, environment, etc. Incentivize research in rural technologies.
• Adopt a mission approach to achieve some identified targets. Resources should be provided for these missions. Identify 10 missions on science and technology fully aligned with national priorities.
• Each of government’s big or small missions should have a scientific research programme which should be done in universities and R&D component.
• Improve science and technology literacy in the country. Get people interested in science. This will require making science teaching interesting and joyful in schools, increasing the number of science museums, having public lectures and demonstrations on science, etc.
• Strengthening science policy and linking it up with foreign policy and defence diplomacy closely to the acquisition of strategic technologies, materials, rare earth and strategic minerals and other technology security initiatives.
• Private sector participation in science and technology. Useful models for creating an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship through the Atal Innovation Mission, starting tinkering labs in schools and the Start-Up India/Stand-Up India are being created. These should be scaled up in Mission mode.
• Initiatives on Making India a maritime power need to be put in place. Technological innovations in blue economy, shipbuilding, scaling up maritime trade including regional trade, marine ecology, deep-sea mining, maritime domain awareness, etc. need to be encouraged. History has shown that no nation has become a major power without fully exploiting the maritime dimension.

India cannot become insular in a knowledge economy. It will also be unwise to say that India can reinvent everything on its own. In a globalized world, global collaborations are necessary. But it also needs to be understood that no one will share a core and strategic technologies with India. It is in these areas that India should become self-sufficient.

What Has India Done So Far

• The government has taken several steps in recent years. The country has set up a robust cybersecurity assurance framework in the country. CERT has been strengthened. A national critical information protection center is now functional and awareness has been raised.
• Different government departments have come up with specific sectoral policies. These include the Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) Policy 2013 of the Department of Science & Technology, Electronics Policy of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Make-in-India of Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), Pharmaceuticals’ Policy, etc. These policies need to be integrated and synergized.
• The question of jobs is a tricky one. The march of technology cannot be stopped. India is still in the early stages of long-term growth. India will need to overhaul its education system to ensure that our children are in tune with the emerging world of technology. At the am the time we will have to invest in new skills.
• The existing labour force may have to be given reorientation. An eco-system of innovation needs to be created. The key policy initiatives in this regard include the ‘Skill-India’ which is aimed at promoting skill development and ‘Start-Up India’ which aims to support new entrepreneurs in gaining easy market access.
• Another coping strategy should be to focus on technologies which find solutions which are useful. We should focus on frugal and rural technologies and other which are suitable to our needs.
• India should also lessen its reliance on imported technologies. An eco-system of innovation will have to be created. This requires a massive effort.

India needs to think big. It should launch some technology missions which focus the attention of youth; help fulfill our priorities, create jobs, and position India as a technology leader in the world. These missions could be in the areas of public health, water conservation, environment protection, clean energy, Swachh Bharat, etc.