The term ​‘Internet governance’ implicates a wide array of issues, including cybersecurity, net neutrality and human rights in the digital age. However, like many other countries, India seems to let its approaches to Internet governance at the global level be determined strongly by its national security concerns. Even as India has shifted to embrace a multistakeholder approach, strategic anxieties regarding cybersecurity remain visible in India’s positions in global Internet governance debates.

This raises a range of questions:

• Where do these anxieties come from?

• How might stakeholders from civil society, academia and the technical community in particular engage with the government’s concerns?

• How can we support the government on aspects of its security related agenda at the global level while at the same time progressing on the rights issues that have been at the core of our own agenda, if at all?

• And what are the implications of all these findings for the development of the multistakeholder model in India?

Key points from the paper that will form the starting point of the discussion include:

• India’s historical approaches to sovereignty and security in multilateral, minilateral and bilateral settings,

• India’s anxieties on technological denial and its experiences around the non-proliferation regimes of the 20^th Century and their implications for India’s position on new cyber regimes,

• the role of terrorism in shaping India’s global Internet governance positions.

The paper will be circulated to participants prior to the meeting.

Feedback from an earlier, similar meeting with government officials on these issues will be provided as well.