India's Digital Policy Paralysis

Despite being the IT powerhouse of the world, lack of digital legislation has put the country's cyber defence under threat.

- Rajiv Ranjan Singh

INDIA RANKS FOURTH in military strength and is the sixth-largest spender on defence, according to Global Firepower Index 2022. The size of India’s military on active duty is around 1.4: million and combined with reserve and paramilitary forces there are more than 5 million defence personnel in the country. Yet such a mighty defence force could not protect lives of those who committed suicide because of Chinese loan apps! The frontiers of war have changed terrain. Despite having a powerful military force, the safety of a nation’s infrastructure, the lives of its people, and financial stability are compromised when a nation’s cyber defence comes under threat. Digital sovereignty demands the same seriousness on the cyber front as is given to its physical counterpart. Protection of the nation and its people, regulating the entry of foreign businesses, restricting and monitoring the entry of foreign citizens, regulating international commerce and transactions, and safeguarding key infrastructure are as important in the digital domain as they are in the physical world. Ironically, policymakers in India are more focused on data privacy issues while digital sovereignty attracts less attention.

Data privacy and data sovereignty are intertwined, but they are very different, says Vineetha M.G., partner, Samvad Partners law firm. Data privacy is the right of a data principal to control the processing of personal data. However, data sovereignty is the right of a sovereign to exercise control over the data of its citizens in a way similar to the rights exercised by them over other natural resources,’ she adds.