India needs National Technology Coordinator

To effectively lead the global tech movement, India urgently needs to invest in an office of what might be called a National Technology Coordinator (NTC). An NTC should ideally be located in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).

The NSCS deconflicts domestic rule-making and regulations with India’s position in the mini-lateral structures that promise to define the future of security and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. The office of an NTC would actively work alongside the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the MEITY, the G20 coordination team.

No ministry or government department is structured to take the lead or invest a hundred percent of its capabilities to track, coordinate, and most importantly, focus its efforts on strategically leveraging all that is happening within India and globally.

There is a clear need for a national personal data law, which can provide the domestic framework to shape an Indian position more clearly on the future of global data governance and cross-border data flows. This will, without doubt, become more urgent when India takes over the presidency of the G20 on 1 December 2022.

The Indian government is on an impressive path to build self-reliance in significant parts of the semiconductor supply chain. An office of the NTC can make sure that all that is being done internally is leveraged externally, and vice-versa.