India's Tech Policy Landscape Needs Overhaul (Read IPLR-IG-007)
From Abhivardhan, our Chairperson
Some food for thought:
I have been pondering for literally a long time about the state of technology policy in India.
I have also written and developed reports on how ministries like MeiTY (India's 'tech' ministry) is inefficient and unclear about its purpose & goals.
However, if you look at a community perspective, it also seems that our technology law and policy discourse is entirely mediocre, and riddled with marketing jargons.
For example, the state of jurisprudence & policy understanding in technology law is such that we have reduced our discourse to three simple things:
1️⃣ Waiting for hyped up and glamorous media reports to spread gospel about India's tech policy landscape
A media outlet hyped about India's semiconductor ambitions by mixing a statement of India's MeiTY Secretary and that of a management consulting MNC about India's 'billion dollar' prospects on semiconductors. How sad. (We had a roundtable on semiconductor in India recently: https://www.youtube.com/live/Iig2G_3QBLM?si=2dTEJT4WnSAd18b_)
2️⃣ Mindless copy-pasting of European, Chinese, American and other policy ideas on technology and AI
This is the funniest one. Be it any committees, or parliamentary bodies or rather government departments - we at the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law have been observing how any legal concept is copypasted from any country assuming that concept will apply to Indian realities.
3️⃣ Obsession with half-baked "not do" regulations
Banning is easy. Strategic banning is contextual (like there is clear international trade law & national security justification why #TikTok banning by India in 2020 was correct). However, this regular obsession of Indian public officials (not just MeiTY, but anyone) to create "not do" rules in regulation explains why India's technology governance, policy & regulation landscape requires a complete shake-off.
The worse part is how Indian technology & AI startups are facing regulatory nightmare and confusion every single month in India. (That's why we at Indic Pacific Legal Research LLP created these training programmes at indicpacific.com/train to help tech people understand law & ethics of AI).
I recommend everyone to go through our MeiTY reforms report at https://indopacific.app/product/reimaging-and-restructuring-meity-for-india-iplr-ig-007/. I have also attached one of the recommendations we had made in this report with Bhavana J, Pratejas, Harinandana V, Jakka Kuswanth Yasaswi, Purnima S and Bhavya Singh. We are again at square 1 I guess.
I hope this report helps all. We are also holding roundtables under the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law again from July. Feel free to engage virtually in our discussions on July 20 & 21.
