Why Indians should not copy US ideas in policy
From Abhivardhan, our Chairperson
Remember the discussions by some Indian CEOs, management consultants, so called experts of the Indian economy that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is what India should emulate?
Turns out since Vivek Ramaswamy left DOGE, Musk has converted that department into a coat-cutting department. Vivek is a sensible man and had reformist ideas with a constitutional law approach, which of course Musk didn’t agree with.
Anyways, despite some limited merits and huge demerits of DOGE, the Indian discourse on sovereignty and improving governance is so low-ended at times.
Why do we need to wait for the Americans or someone else to do something and then talk about ideas?
Same happened with this DeepSeek desperation. IndiaAI proposed an impossible goal to build LLMs in six months. While doing it with a startup is fine, 6-8 months is an impossible timeline.
This is why when policy analysis is done, one should suggest solutions or guide to reach a solution which is commonsensical.
If India has to wait for Trump 2.0 pressure on tariffs to make pressure, it means the inefficiency of our bureaucracy and monopolist nature of our companies needs to be addressed.
But of course, it’s better never to adopt a reactive approach to governance. You can do things in a legal and ethical way and yet protect sovereignty.
This is why I don’t think India should give up its goal of data localisation under data protection law. But MeiTY, the tech ministry has to be very clear on the standards of data localisation and have the stomach to negotiate it with the US. Please don’t use the billion people argument.
Have a spine, but do it with common sense. India-US relations won’t collapse tomorrow if we act commonsensically.
Same is my view on tariffs. I completely disagree with Global Trade Research Initiative’s blunt suggestion on this. For example, tariffs in agri sector shall be hard to negotiate. Eventually Trump admin will understand this.
If you think tech lawyers should be sensitive about policy and economic environments and not just legal while solving your tech law problems, then let me know how can I help.
Also shoutout to Priyank for this thread. 😅
