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he below explains the phenomenon of sudden rise of US industry led
advocacy within India on IG issues, including through the use of the
multi stakeholder cover. This is not unconnected to the incursions
that US industry was able to make into civil society
representational space as well, like recently witnessed at
NetMundial... parminder<br>
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<div dir="ltr">from the Indian Express <a
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href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/cast-a-wider-net/">http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/cast-a-wider-net/</a><br>
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<h1>Cast a wider Net</h1>
<div> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://indianexpress.com/profile/columnist/hardeep-s-puri/"
target="_blank">Hardeep S Puri</a> | July 17, 2014 12:32
am </div>
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<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"> </a></div>
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<div> <i><b> </b></i><i><b>The revelation explains
a phenomenon that earlier appeared inscrutable,
that of employees of multinational internet and
telecom majors masquerading as spokespersons of
the Indian telecom and internet industry. </b></i></div>
<i><b> </b></i></div>
<i><b> </b></i>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<div>India needs to break out of the status quo on
internet governance.</div>
<h5><small><u><big><big><span
style="font-size:small;font-weight:normal">The
summoning of the US charge d’affaires to
South Block on July 2 on the issue of
snooping by the US’s National Security
Agency (NSA) was a welcome step. The
revelation that the BJP was targeted for
snooping as long ago as 2010 is not at all
surprising. It can now be mentioned that
immediately after India was elected to the
United Nations Security Council in 2010, a
request was made by the permanent mission of
India in New York to South Block, asking for
safeguards against precisely such an
eventuality.</span></big></big></u></small></h5>
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<p>By no stretch of definition can the then main
opposition party in India or, for that matter, the
Indian delegation to the UN, be regarded as requiring
surveillance by the NSA if the concern is anchored in
the desire to counter terrorism. Equally, to try to
defend the sweeping collection of phone and internet
records on the grounds that it was only gathering
“metadata” is profoundly misleading.</p>
<p>The radio silence from the UPA government on
revelations by Edward Snowden almost two years ago that
the NSA engaged in massive snooping operations at a
global level, including telephone conversations of
leaders of other countries, was in marked contrast to
reactions from other countries. Brazil’s cancellation of
a state visit to Washington DC at the invitation of
President Barack Obama and the public expression of
outrage, including the recent expulsion of the
senior-most intelligence operative by Germany, a close
ally of the US and Nato partner, stand out in contrast.
The Indian protest under the UPA was low-level, belated,
feeble and pro forma.</p>
<p>It would have been embarrassing for the government of
India to condemn such a practice by the US if, for
example, Vodafone and/ or AT&T were to come out with
a public assertion in response that they were extending
similar services to India at the request of the then
government. Recent revelations by Vodafone that India
was among the governments which asked it to snoop/
wire-tap calls, e-mails and text messages going into and
out of the country have surprisingly not received the
attention they should have.</p>
<p>The revelation explains yet another phenomenon that
earlier appeared inscrutable, that of employees of
multinational internet and telecom majors masquerading
as spokespersons of the Indian telecom and internet
industry. When questions relating to global internet
governance acquired salience, this particular group
cornered the space for discussion and, through motivated
writings, sought to propagate the thesis that the
“multi-stakeholder” model advocated globally by the
multinational internet and telecom majors resonated in
India as well, with little or scant regard for the
long-term interests of India and Indian internet and
telecom majors.</p>
<p>The NETmundial conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in
April this year produced an outcome that fell far short
of the expectations of most observers and sought to
preserve the status quo. The US administration’s
generous offer to make adjustments to its authority over
ICANN has come with conditionalities and time-frames
which have made them meaningless, if not impossible to
achieve.</p>
<p>India’s principal concerns and long-term interests with
regard to global internet governance require the renewal
of our commitment to protect and promote the internet as
an unprecedented tool of innovation and empowerment.
India should reaffirm our adherence to all obligations
under the various treaties on human rights to which we
are a party, in particular to those relating to freedom
of expression. We should also commit ourselves to all
measures to bridge the “digital divide”, both nationally
and internationally. India and Indian IT enterprises
will no doubt need to preserve and enhance the interests
of Indian users of the internet, whose numbers have been
growing greatly in recent years.</p>
<p>Indian IT companies need to preserve the global
competitive edge secured over the years. They also need
to assess the possible evolution of the IT industry over
the next 20 years or so and orient themselves to the
changing demands of the global industry. They can thus
seek to build on the comparative advantages that they
have enjoyed till now. This will require encouraging
creativity and innovation as well as setting up
enterprises tailored to the next generation. India has
to move up the value chain in the global IT industry in
the long term. This would imply a much-needed transition
from providing IT skills and back-room services to
making its own branded services and products and leading
global innovation in IT.</p>
<p>Several international public policy issues pertaining
to the internet, including, among others, the
infrastructure and management of critical internet
resources, already stand identified by the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS). These include issues
of considerable interest and relevance to developing
countries, such as the bridging of the digital divide,
interconnection costs and participation in global policy
development. Several new public policy issues have
emerged since the WSIS, such as cloud computing, mass
surveillance and the collection of metadata, the use of
cyber weapons and jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Plurilateral agreements among developed countries on
substantive policy issues and treaties negotiated among
them have remained the dominant global governance model
in the internet arena. The inclusion of developing
countries in global norm-setting and design of digital
architecture will continue to pose an important
challenge in the coming years. Without such inclusion,
the inherently global nature of the internet will be
threatened — there is the danger of fragmentation of
the internet through disparate national policies.</p>
<p>The principal challenge before Indian policymakers is
to move away from the short term and the cacophony
organised by the status quoists, forcefully articulate
the long-term interests of the Indian internet and
telecom majors, and design and put in place the
necessary eco-system and policy framework for the
purpose. We should aim at building the next-generation
editions of TCS, Infosys and Wipro, and move up the
value chain. The Vodafone revelation has come not a day
too soon, and will hopefully serve as yet another
wake-up call.</p>
<p>This will require not only rejigging domestic policy,
but also making necessary changes in articulating
India’s position in international forums on issues
relating to global internet governance. Over the last
four years, the UPA government had allowed itself to be
led by the spokespersons of global industry; it is high
time that this was challenged. The government under
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an excellent
opportunity to reverse this trend, make the necessary
and imperative course corrections, and move in the right
direction.</p>
<p>The author, a retired diplomat and BJP member, is
non-resident senior advisor, International Peace
Institute, New York.<br>
Views are personal</p>
<p>***</p>
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