Feb 2016 12

Experiences Shaping India’s Approach to Internet Governance and Cyber Security

Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

This closed-door meeting is being organised for senior government officials by the Internet Democracy Project and the Observer Research Foundation to discuss a paper that Saikat Datta was commissioned to write for us on India’s experiences and the apprehensions shaping India’s approaches to cybersecurity and Internet governance, titled – ‘Cybersecurity, Internet Governance & India’s Foreign Policy: Historical Antecedents’.

The term internet governance’ implicates a wide array of issues, chief among them being cyber security, the digital economy, human rights, communication and inclusion. In the recent past, however, it has emerged that many countries including India view this wide area through the narrow focus of national security. Strategic anxieties are visible in the positions that India and other countries have taken on internet governance issues.

Key points for discussion will include:

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

  • India’s experiences around the non-proliferation regimes of the 20th Century and their implications for India’s position on new cyber regimes

  • India’s anxieties on technological denial, export control and exclusion, and their impact on India’s current appreciation of digital technology, big data and dual-use technologies

This will be a closed-door, off the record discussion attended by senior government officials, practitioners, regulators and key members of the strategic community.