EVENTS

China’s policy aimed at digital sovereignty has yielded remarkable results. It has successfully developed an integrated technology stack in both hardware and software, including building its indigenous digital platforms, apps and super apps, sovereign clouds, and related infrastructure. Chinese Big Tech companies enjoy billion-dollar valuations and the US embargo has further accelerated China’s determination to be fully independent of global supply chains. Huawei amongst other Chinese Big Tech companies, has taken the lead in developing China’s hardware stack including the semiconductor sector. This Wednesday Seminar presentation will examine China’s policy framework that enabled its rapid progress in digital sovereignty and contrast it with India’s approach. It will highlight the lessons that India can draw from both the US and China’s experience to derive some recommendations for the policy that serves India. It is imperative for a country like India to build sovereign digital capabilities to protect itself from cyber-attacks and promote accelerated technological and economic growth. Although India has its own email and search engine ecosystems and its engineers continue to power a trillion-dollar digital growth abroad, there is an urgent need to reorient its capabilities for its own development and national security.

Speaker

Smita Purushottam founded the Science, Indigenous Technology & Advanced Research Accelerator (SITARA) to promote the development of a high-tech economy after her retirement from the Indian Foreign Service. She had also launched the High-Tech Defence Innovation Forum at IDSA in 2011. She has served in diverse capacities in India’s missions in Berlin, London, Beijing, Brussels and Moscow and as Ambassador to Switzerland, the Vatican, Liechtenstein and Venezuela. Within the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs, she has handled the Russian, SAARC, Bhutan and other desks. She has actively pursued her academic interests at Harvard, IDSA, UCSD and NDU and has been publishing on the need to learn lessons from the economic reforms and innovation ecosystems in different parts of the world. She speaks Russian and French apart from native Indian languages.

Chair

Ravi Bhoothalingam is a scholar and business leader with degrees from St. Stephen’s College, University of Cambridge, and Harvard Business School. Trained by renowned Sinologist Joseph Needham, he has deep expertise in psycholinguistics, the scientific method, and Chinese culture. He has led expeditions across China, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet, and Myanmar. His corporate career includes senior roles such as President of The Oberoi Group, MD of VST Industries, Director at ITC Ltd., and Head of Personnel Worldwide at BATplc. Ravi has served on multiple corporate boards and was on the Court of Governors at Administrative Staff College of India. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Mentor at Ashoka University.

Event Registration Link Here