EAM Jaishankar highlights the centrality of technology to the approach towards public policy
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar inaugurated the prestigious Global Technology Summit 2023 on Monday (December 4, 2023) with an opening statement which set the tone for a forward-thinking discourse – “those who lead the world lead the world's technologies”. He then went on to warn that monopolization of technology brings its own consequences. Here are some key points from EAM Jaishankar’s inaugural address:
 
Technology and policy challenges: “In terms of the policy challenges that it presents one, of course, is the need to regulate technology because many technologies also come with their downsides and we have seen that expressed in world affairs through regimes and treaties and rules and there are some which are very obvious as we've seen.
 
Consequences of monopolizers: There are many which are managed through understandings and conventions but a second concern is, of course the competitive aspect of technology that those who lead the world lead the world's technologies and to the extent that there are leaders, sometimes even monopolizers, there are consequences of that".
 
India is playing catch up: “Where India is concerned, I think today we are, in many areas, very clearly playing catch-up. We're playing catch-up because while our era of reform started three decades ago, the era of reform was not necessarily the era of technology, that we conceptualized reform in much narrower terms. We were perhaps not as ambitious and as expansive as we should have been.
 
India in the last decade: “If I were today to sum up the last decade, because I think we are now very clearly at the tail end of what is the second term of the Modi government, perhaps one major difference has been the centrality of technology to approach towards public policy and to approach towards governance and towards national security”.
 
Technology and Digital Public Infrastructure: “Effort in building and delivering on a Digital Public Infrastructure what Prime Minister calls democratising of technology. Technology that today the average person not only uses it but relates to it and of course the figures that we like to tout out the massive volume of UPI transactions which shows how readily people take to technology once it is there on offer.”
 
Technology and Mobility: "Many more countries are interested in mobility discussions because the world of technology is also accelerating the world of mobility".
 
Apart from these points, EAM Jaishankar also delved into the complexities of digital governance, the impact of emerging technologies on traditional industries, and the critical need for a skilled workforce to navigate the digital landscape.
 
The External Affairs Minister’s inaugural address at the Global Technology Summit 2023 was also a call to action for global leaders, technologists, and policymakers. His vision for a technologically advanced yet equitable world resonates with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the digital era.