How should India shape digital sovereignty?

Sovereignty multiplies innovation, and India should be a follow-on innovator rather than a follower

- ACPAYAL MALIK NIKITA JAIN

AFTER 78 YEARS of freedom, does India need digital freedom too? In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “From operating systems to cybersecurity, from deep tech to artificial intelligence, everything should be our own.’ He added that “we are working on the world’s platforms”, a status quo that cannot be our destiny. His speech calls for ‘sovereign’ technology, beginning with the operating system (OS). The OS is not merely software but the chokepoint that sets defaults on the six-inch screen most Indians wake up to—defaults that, in turn, shape markets and business models.