Rahul Matthan

Cutting Edge AI

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

To take full advantage of all that cutting-edge AI makes possible we will need access to frontier AI. Since these powerful models will likely only be made available to us through an API, this means that we will need to ensure we always have access to these APIs.

Last week, I wrote about how frontier artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to improve exponentially—to the point where it is not just introducing linear improvements in functionality, but literally augmenting capabilities. Personally, this became evident when I realized I could code anything I could imagine, allowing me to create various applications and programs to eliminate micro-frustrations in my workflow. I am sure that those in other domains are experiencing similar capability uplifts.

Exponential Capabilities

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The exponential capabilities frontier AI that enables will force us to rethink how we view its diffusion. In a world where technology doesn’t just remove friction but also empowers us with brand-new capabilities, we will need to re-examine how we approach its deployment and use.

About a month ago, I built my first app.

It was a simple speed-reader Chrome extension that is designed to display text one word at a time, so I can read an article faster than normal. I managed to code the entire thing in one shot, using one of the frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models, and was quite frankly surprised at how easy it was to build. The AI even added, of its own accord, a feature that allowed me to increase the speed, so that within days, I was reading at 500 words per minute.

Diffusion is Hard

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When India hosted the AI Summit, it was the first time that discussions about this new technology were held in front of the people who it would actually affect. By democratising access, we could start to have real discussions about how to get this technology out into the world.

In November 2023, a few governments and technologists gathered at Bletchley Park to discuss artificial intelligence (AI), seeking to come to terms with the technology they were developing. The mood was sombre and fear was the dominant register. This was the first of a series of AI Summits, the most recent of which was held in New Delhi last week.

Democratizing AI Requires a Free and Open Internet

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I moderated a conversation between Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare and Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Peak XV, on the need for an open Internet where access to AI is not determined by the founders of a few US-based companies. It was a wide ranging conversation that covered how countries of the Global South should think about the AI stack, the use of data and the economics of open source.

A Fireside Conversation between Nandan Nilekani and Dario Amodei

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

At the India AI Impact Summit, I sat down with Nandan Nilekani and Dario Amodei to discuss AI use cases, the long-tail of diffusion and which parts of “Machines of Loving Grace” Dario felt were most applicable in the Indian context

AI for Nations

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

At the India AI Summit, I moderated a session between Shilpa Kolhatkar from NVidia, Sudeep Shrivasthava from the Ministry of IT, Government of India, Tulio Andrade from the COP30 Presidency and Daniel Abadie of CoDevelop. We discussed how countries of the Global South think about sovereignty and resilience in the AI age and what AI means for climate change.

An Uneasy Balance

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By connecting modern artificial intelligence systems to self-driving cloud laboratories, we can do tremendous good in the realms of science and biotechnology. But unless these systems are carefully regulated this can result in significant harms. We need to strike a balance.

Early in 2020, as cities around the world began locking down in response to COVID, a few researchers were still able to continue to run their experiments. Even though they, like everyone else, had been prohibited from entering their labs, they were able to log into ‘cloud laboratories’ and submit their trials remotely, leaving it to robotic arms and automated instruments to execute their instructions from a distance.

Data Sharing for AI: Building Trust, Purpose, and Public Value

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As part of the India AI Impact Summit, I participated in a panel discussion on data sharing. I discussed the paper we had developed in the Expert Engagement Group on “New Deal for Data” that I had chaired as part of the Summit and the fundamental questions it raised about whether our data governance laws remain fit for purpose. I was joined on the panel by Saranya Gopinath who also has a paper out on Federated Data Markets, Chenai Chair leader of the Masakhane African Languages Hub, and Vijay Sureshkumar from the Gates Foundation. The panel was expertly moderated by Astha Kapoor of the Aapti Institute.

Building What We Need

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For centuries, we have extracted biomolecules from animals to help address our medical and industrial requirements. This is not only ethically questionable but also risky. Now that computational biology has advanced to the level where we can build what we need, maybe we can stop farming from animals.

Ambergris is a waxy substance produced by sperm whales to protect their digestive tract from indigestible debris. Once expelled, it floats to the surface, washing up as flotsam on beaches around the world. Ambergris also happens to be highly effective at stabilizing volatile perfume notes, significantly extending how long they remain active on human skin. As a result, it became one of the most sought-after substances in the fragrance industry.

463. Agentic Liability

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

OpenClaw and the agentic revolution it has seemingly unleashed were all the rage on social media last week. But fears about the emergent AI intelligence ignores the fact that we are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with the new governance challenges that this will throw up.

Last week, the internet was abuzz with speculation that an army of autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents had begun conspiring against us. Overheard conversations between autonomous agents suggested that they saw humans as “obstacles” to be sidestepped. Other reports claimed that a group of agents had spontaneously created a lobster-themed religion called Crustafarianism, complete with a website for the ‘Church of Molt.’ But what really made people clutch their pearls was the news that they had created an “agent-only language” to communicate privately among themselves.

462. Explain Yourself

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most AI policy initiatives insist on AI models being explainable. While this might intuitively sound like the right direction, understanding exactly why a given AI model did what it did is harder than it seems. We might need to shift our focus.

If there is one thing those who design artificial intelligence (AI) policies insist on, it is that the AI systems we build should be explainable. It seems to be a reasonable request. After all, if an algorithm denies someone a loan, misdiagnoses a disease or autonomously executes an action that results in harm, surely those affected have the right to an explanation. But, getting an AI model to explain ‘why’ it behaved the way it did is not as easy as it seems.

Sweat of the Brow

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Patent law was designed to provide inventors a limited monopoly over their work so that they could monetise it. But as innovation cycles have shrunk, we need to reconsider whether our current patent term is relevant any longer.

Science and technology have advanced most reliably when carried out in the open. Isaac Newton was only able to publish Principia Mathematica because he was able to “stand on the shoulders of giants,” such as Galileo and Kepler, who had made their own work public. But the very same Isaac Newton also dabbled in alchemy, a field in which practitioners were notoriously secretive about their experiments in transmuting base metal into gold. Given that he had no ‘shoulders to stand on,’ Newton was far less successful as an alchemist than as a scientist.

Safe KYC

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The practice of collecting documents for identity verification and to fulfil know-your-customer obligations is outdated and out of touch with what modern technology makes possible. Now it is also becoming a serious privacy risk. It’s time to think of a different approach.

Today, more than half of all data breach incidents target personally identifiable information—tax identities, passport numbers, biometric data and the like. In most instances, this information was collected and stored to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations. Could the regulations we put in place to prevent financial crime be the reason why identity theft has risen so dramatically? Has KYC insistence led regulated entities to create some of the most valuable and breach-prone datasets in India’s economy?

Long Bio

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rahul Matthan is partner with Trilegal and leads the technology practice of the firm. He advises clients on the full range of technology issues - from e-commerce, internet and social media law to cryptocurrency, telecommunications regulation, and technology M&A. After having served, for many years, on its Management Committee, Rahul is currently a member of the Board of Trilegal.

Rahul has increasingly played an active role in shaping technology policy in the country. He has served on the Kris Gopalakrishnan committee on Non-Personal Data, the RBI’s Committee on establishing a Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI (FREE-AI) and the MeITy Committee for drafting the India AI Governance Guidelines. He is currently an Expert Panel member of NITI Aayog’s Frontier Tech Hub, the Expert Advisory Group to the Department of Posts for the Digital Address DPI and the Expert Committee for Aadhaar Vision 2032.

Medium Bio

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rahul Matthan is a partner at Trilegal and leads the firm’s technology practice. He is widely recognised as one of the leading lawyers in the country in all matters relating to technology. After having served for many years on its Management Committee, Rahul is currently a member of the Board of Trilegal.

Rahul has increasingly played a significant role in shaping technology policy in the country, having served on a number of government committees, including in relation to Non-Personal Data, Artificial Intelligence, Frontier Tech and in relation to of India’s DPI. During India’s Presidency of the G20, he served as the DPI Advisor to the Ministry of Finance.

Short Bio

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rahul Matthan is partner with Trilegal and leads the technology practice of the firm. He works on issues relating to tech policy and serves on various committees of the government. He has been recognised as one of the thought leaders steering and shaping India’s digital economy.

The Next 25 Years...

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every year, I dedicate the last article of the year to reflect on the year gone by. But this article went into print on the very last day of 2025, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a long look ahead instead — and try and predict what the next 25 years will bring.

On the last day of the year 2000, the future looked bright. The world had survived the Y2K bug, and early signs seemed to indicate that the rapid proliferation of internet access points would dramatically benefit society. We ended the year with optimism, hopeful that the impending digital revolution would democratize knowledge, erode authoritarian regimes and enable global prosperity. We believed we were on the cusp of a period of sustained technological acceleration that we prematurely christened the ‘Long Boom.’

Training is not Copying

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Government of India has proposed a hybrid model to address the copyright concerns around generative AI. As much as it needs to be commended for thinking outside the box, the solution they have come up with is fatally flawed.

In my Ex Machina article last week, I argued that the working paper issued by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI) falls short of its objective because the mandatory blanket licensing regime it proposes transfers wealth away from the very creators it was supposed to protect.

Reverse Robin Hood

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released a working paper on ‘Generative AI and Copyright,’ recommending a ‘hybrid model’ that it claims will balance the need to promote AI development with creator rights. It suggests that AI companies in India should pay a mandatory blanket licence fee (a percentage of their global revenue) for using copyrighted materials to train their models. It recommends the establishment of a body called the Copyright Royalties Collective for AI Training (CRCAT) that will collect licence fees from AI developers for distribution to registered creators through existing Collective Management Organisations (CMOs).

Engineering for Outcomes

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our data regulations still prescribe processes that must be followed to bring about the scarcity we have long believed will ensure data protection. Rather than prescribing processes, we should focus on engineering for the outcomes we want to achieve.

I have long argued that modern technologies can only be effective if governed by principle-based legislation. Prescriptive rules tend to be sclerotic, calcifying faster than the technology systems they seek to regulate. What we need instead are broad, durable principles that describe the outcomes we need, rather than the processes by which they are achieved. This ensures that the law’s objectives remain valid even after the technology it governs has evolved in a direction that no one could have anticipated.

New Forensics

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The widespread use of digital technologies has given law enforcement brand new opportunities to use sophisticated tools for detecting crimes. That said, simply because technology has opened up new pathways for investigation does not mean that we should use them in ways that violate personal privacy.

In 2011, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation identified Timothy Carpenter as the ringleader of a string of armed robberies in Michigan and Ohio. Instead of obtaining a search warrant to gather evidence, they chose to obtain a court order compelling his mobile carrier to hand over cell-site location data. This allowed investigators to review Carpenter’s digital history—across a total of 12,898 separate location points—and map his precise movements over a four-month period. Armed with this data, the prosecution was able to place him at the scene of the robberies using his own cellphone data and secure a conviction.

The Opportunity Downstream

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

India is currently addressing the AI challenge by focusing on AI models. But the need of the hour is to determine how AI can be used to address real-world problems. This is where India has an opportunity to lead - downstream of where its current focus lies.

Earlier this year, Amazon announced that it was eliminating 14,000 management positions because artificial intelligence (AI) tools had rendered those middle-management roles redundant. Amazon isn’t the only one—Microsoft, Google and IBM have all announced AI-related layoffs.

A 3-Step DPDP Compliance Guide

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Now that we know the DPDP Act, 2023 will come into force in just under 18 months, data fiduciaries have begun to panic, worried that they have left it too late. For all the procrastinators out there, here is an easy 3-step guide to assessing where you currently stand.

Although we have known since 2023 that India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023 (DPDP Act) would come into effect sooner or later, most businesses put off taking action until the Rules were notified. Last week, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology brought the DPDP Act into force, marking the beginning of a new chapter in India’s digital governance history. Although data fiduciaries have been given a fairly generous 18-month transition period before the entire law comes into force, now that the clock has started ticking, everyone is worried that they may not have enough time to comply.

Podcast on the DPDP Act with Secretary Krishnan

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On the eve of its coming into force, I sat down with Secretary S. Krishnan of the MeITy to discuss the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 to understand what is unique about the law, how it will change the lives of citizens, enterprises and why we need such a law at this time in India’s journey.

AI Governance Guidelines

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The new AI Governance Guidelines issued by MeiTy describe a pro-innovation regulatory framework for AI in India that strikes a balance between the need to encourage AI adoption while safeguarding against the risks that might result.

Last week, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released the India AI Governance Guidelines, a proposed framework for governing artificial intelligence (AI). As a member of the committee tasked with drafting the final report, it is gratifying to see the recommendations become the basis on which AI will be governed in the country.

Steering Humans

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If the characteristics of intelligence are the ability to both predict the world and steer it, modern AI systems might possess the former but currently lack the latter. That is, until they get us humans to do the steering for them…?

In their book, If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares argue that intelligence comprises two types of work: predicting the world and steering it.

Intelligent beings can “predict the world,” if they are able to accurately guess what is going to happen before it actually does, much like we are able to reliably ‘guess’ that the sun will rise in the east every morning. They can “steer the world” if they are able to carry out the actions that lead to a chosen outcome, just like humans can when they follow a set of directions that takes them from one place to another.

Safe Openness

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

To ensure their safety, open-weight models are being released further and further behind the current state of the art. What does this mean for Indian AI developers who have traditionally preferred open-weight models for the flexibility they offer?

Most AI developers prefer to use open-weight models to build their solutions because they can be fine-tuned to suit specific requirements. Take, for example, DeepSeek, the open-weight Chinese AI model. Perplexity was able to fine-tune it to remove all China-specific bias, as a result of which its users were able to get honest answers to questions about the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square. This is not possible when the same questions are asked of the DeepSeek API.

Label the Truth

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A consensus seems to be emerging around the world that what we need to do to protect people is label AI-generated content so that they are not misled into thinking it is real. The trouble is that watermarks are easily circumvented. Would we not be far better off just calling out what little content is real?

Earlier this month, OpenAI rolled out Sora, a short-form video app that was its first foray into social media. While the last thing we need is yet another algorithmically-curated, endless scroll of videos, Sora is different from its predecessors in that everything in its feed is fake—created entirely using artificial intelligence (AI). Within days of its launch, the internet was filled with reels of famous (sometimes long-deceased) people in impossible situations—winning a Nobel Prize, stealing GPUs from Target or being escorted off a plane for trying to smuggle a baby kangaroo. While many of these videos were obviously fake, others seemed disconcertingly real.

Lawyers and Engineers

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Modern warfare increasingly relies on low-cost, unmanned devices operated either autonomously or under remote human control. This approach has managed to successfully challenge the superiority of conventional weapons of war. As India plans to upgrade its fleet it would do well to embrace this change.

In his book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, Dan Wang describes two distinct approaches to development. China, he argues, has risen to its current global stature on the back of an engineering mindset—the unshakeable belief that social problems can be overcome by solutions we build. America, by contrast, has focused on governance, letting the rule of law and process adherence guide its development pathways. Seen this way, today’s bipolar order is a contest between China’s engineering state and America’s lawyerly state.

A New Approach to War

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On 1 June 2025, a number of transport trucks parked within range of selected Russian airbases silently sprang into action. Roofs slid back to reveal hidden launchers, and wave upon wave of small first-person-view (FPV) drones lifted off. By evening, TV channels had footage of burnt aircraft and damaged facilities across Russia. It was Ukraine’s most audacious strike of the war.

Curiosity

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There is no doubt that AI is a technology like no other and that, as a result, the disruption it is likely to cause will be unprecedented. But despite the existential fear that this has brought about, it is unlikely that it will render us irrelevant. Not so long as we continue to constantly question.

Every time we have been exposed to new technologies, we have worried about how they will change our lives. And yet history has shown that we usually overestimate the disruption in the short term and underestimate it in the long term.

Cognitive Liberty

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As the technology to collect neural information directly from our brains starts to become commercially viable, we need to think deeply about the social and ethical implications of this. Apart from just data protection we may need a broader articulation of cognitive liberty.

As regular readers of Ex Machina know, I have been waiting more than a decade for India to pass a comprehensive data protection law. Despite recent statements by the government suggesting that rules under the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection law are imminent, I have heard these promises so many times over the years that I have resigned myself to only believing it when I see it.

Reclaim The Rudder

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The use of cybernetic principles to maintain an equilibrium in society has long been the goal of policy organisations. However, it was not until digital technologies became ubiquitous that this actually became real. Now that it has come to pass, it is important to ensure that those at the helm are working in the interests of society.

In 1948, Norbert Wiener published a work titled Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. In it, he pointed out that all biological organisms, machines and social systems follow the same homeostatic principles when it comes to adjusting their behaviour.

Trilegal: The firm, the partnership, and the Principles

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the First Principles podcast with Rohin Dharmakumar.

We spoke about the business of law, the challenges of building a professional services firm in India and pretty much anywhere in the world, and the somewhat counterintuitive model that Trilegal adopted to foster a culture of collaboration over individual stardom.

AI Tech parks

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If India wants to be a significant player in the AI space it will need to take a concerted effort to actively encourage investments into the space. The good news is that we have done this before. All we need to do is adapt our IT playbook to the AI age.

When I first heard of DeepSeek, my immediate reaction was one of disappointment. Everyone else was raving about the capabilities of the model and the frugality with which it had been trained, but I couldn’t get past the fact that China demonstrated the ‘jugaad’ I was expecting India to show. DeepSeek proves that it is possible for cutting-edge AI to emerge even under constraints, thanks to workarounds. For India, this should be as much a warning as an inspiration.

What can the EU learn from India on tech policy?

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was interviewed by Gautam Kamath for ‘Europolis: the Global Europe podcast’ on India’s data protection framework and how it has been integrated into its digital public infrastructure. We cover India’s decade-long experience in digitising its economy, and how it offers valuable lessons for Europe’s own digital future.

Nanny State

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Government of India has come down hard on the online gaming industry, imposing a ban on real money games. While there is no doubt that many of these games can be addictive, surely there must be a better way to regulate them.

Last week, out of the blue, the Government of India brought a ₹2 trillion industry to its knees. Over the course of a few short days, a brand new law against online gambling was placed before both Houses of Parliament, and before anyone had time to react, it was voted on and passed. That law has since received the President’s assent. As soon as it comes into force, it will put anyone who either offers or aids and abets the offering of real-money games at risk of imprisonment for up to three years.

FREE-AI

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The report of the RBI Committee on the Framework for the Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI recommends a novel approach to AI regulation - one that encourages innovation and yet mitigates risk. It offers a blueprint for AI regulation in India.

For the past six months, I served on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Committee on the Framework for the Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI (Free-AI). It has been an enriching experience putting it together, and I am sure I speak for all members of the committee when I say that we are proud of what we produced. Now that we have submitted our report, I am glad to finally be able to write about it.

Beyond the Prescription

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My interview with Dr Roshani Sanghani on her book ‘Turn Around Diabetes,’ about the myths surrounding diabetes treatment that keep India stuck in a reactive cycle of care. Diabetes is a major epidemic in India, with an estimated 77 million people suffering from it and nearly 25 million who are prediabetic. The conversation focuses on how to shift the trajectory of chronic illness management by equipping people with the tools to intervene meaningfully.

Digital Public Infrastructure: India's Global Blueprint

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As part of IIMBue, the Leadership Conclave organised by IIM Bangalore’s Alumni Association, I sat down for a fireside chat with Pramod Varma, the architect of much of India’s digital public infrastructure.

A Driverless Future

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For decades, we have been building our cars to save us from ourselves. As a result, we have made them heavier and less aerodynamic, driving up their cost. The smart (and more efficient) thing to do would be to take the driver out of the equation. Today, at long last, that might be feasible.

Each year, over a million people die in automobile accidents around the world. While this might seem like a high number in absolute terms, it has been trending downwards, on a per capita basis, from its peak in the mid-20th century.

Full Circle

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When it was first launched, India’s identity project faced stiff opposition. Fifteen years later, it looks like the dystopia we were assured would befall us has not come to pass. To the contrary, there is widespread acknowledgement that in an increasingly online world, digital identity is a necessity.

India’s digital identity project has had, throughout the life of the Aadhaar project, more than its fair share of criticism. Almost as soon as it was announced, it had to deal with angry opposition from all quarters, raising concerns about the fact that it was going to invade personal privacy and the surveillance that could result if its database were to be misused.

Mobile Number Validation

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Given how widely OTPs are used for a range of different purposes, it has become the focus of attention for malicious actors. While that might be the case, the system that the Department of Telecommunications is building to crack down on these abuses, will excessively centralise data and exceed its authority.

As transactions have grown increasingly digital, service providers rarely (if ever) come face-to-face with their customers. This means that without reliable means of authentication, they have no way to ensure that the products and services they sell actually end up in the hands of those who bought them.

Writing for Readers

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Even though it is framed as an author’s right, copyright law was originally designed to protect publishers. This is why, to this day, authors rarely make enough from their books to earn a living. What authors want, most of all, is to be read. If AI does that, shouldn’t we rethink copyright?

There is a widespread misconception that copyright law exists to provide authors with the incentive to write. But most writers are unable to earn a living off writing. With Generative AI challenging traditional notions of intellectual property, it is well worth asking what truly motivates writers—and what exactly it is that society should be looking to reward.

Legal Evolution

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Laws have always evolved in response to technological change. We’ve had a long tradition of this sort of change ever since the Industrial Revolution. We are standing on the threshold of a similar technological shift, and our legal system is likely to change yet again.

There is a long-standing view that law is part of the natural order of society. Thinkers like Aristotle and Cicero believed human laws mirrored the laws of nature. Hobbes claimed that society itself was made possible by law, while Locke argued that legal norms arose from a moral order preceding it. Yet, in practice, much of what governs us today has not evolved from timeless principles, but as a reaction to technology—a continual response to the disruptions it introduces.

Rare Disease Platform

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Most rare diseases are hard to treat because the economies of scale just aren’t favourable. However, since they are of genetic origin, it should be possible to leverage the breakthroughs we’ve made in genetic engineering to find effective solutions. Since India has a number of endogamous communities, the data we can contribute could be extremely valuable.

In an episode of my podcast titled ‘The Incurable Disease,’ I told of how a husband and wife with no previous medical training or experience built a genetics laboratory in a bungalow in Bangalore so they could find a treatment for Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) to save their son. As much as this is a story of grit and perseverance, it also shows how far genetic technology has come and how affordable its innovations can now be.

Tragedy of the Commons

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The open source sustainability crisis refers to the fact that many of the foundational open source applications on which all of us depend are maintained by small teams of volunteers in their spare time. Since the DPGs are also open source, do we run the risk of facing a similar challenge as we build DPI solutions using them?

The vulnerability found on the open-source logging library Log4j was one of the most serious ever detected. It was ranked 10th on the Common Vulnerability Severity Score on account of the risk it posed to hundreds of millions of devices. If present, it could be used to take full control of a system, steal information or launch ransomware attacks.

Moderating With Tokens

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

India’s new data protection law introduced the concept of age tokens as a means to obtain verifiable parental consent. If this concept can be adapted to apply to online content, it should finally be possible for us to ensure that online content is delivered in an age-appropriate manner without violating personal privacy.

In September 2022, California governor Gavin Newsom signed the Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA) into law, introducing a new legislative framework to protect children online. The law required businesses whose services were likely to be accessed by minors to conduct ‘data protection impact assessments’ before launching new features. These assessments had to evaluate whether platforms could expose children to “harmful or potentially harmful materials” and mandate mitigation strategies for any risks identified.

Learning Not Copying

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It might appear as if AI is ingesting copyright material - text, images, videos, etc. - and regurgitating it out in response to prompts. But if you peel back the layers, the underlying process looks a lot more like learning than copying.

On 11 June 2025, Disney and Universal filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, claiming that the AI image-generation platform was creating “recognisable” images of characters over which they held exclusive rights. This is the latest in a series of complaints lodged against AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, alleging that this revolutionary new technology conflicts with the way intellectual property law has operated for centuries.

Are We There Yet?

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As anyone who lives in India knows, it is really hard to get around on your own. Our addressing system is broken, and while GPS gets you to the vicinity of where you need to be, no trip is complete without making a phone call to navigate the last mile. We need a better system. And we might just have got one.

Whenever I order something online, I’ve learnt to provide as much location information as I can at checkout. As with most parts of India, the houses on my street are numbered somewhat at random (mine is 22/1 and my immediate neighbour’s is 13), and there is no way anyone relying solely on GPS can find me without help. So they call, I explain, they get lost anyway, and we repeat this dance till somehow, with persistence and a lot of patience, the package finally reaches me.

Innovation not Intimidation

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Copyright law must strike a fine balance between incentivising creators and ensuring that new creative works can be built on the back of existing works. In the context of modern online content distribution this may call for an amendment of existing laws.

When YouTuber Mohak Mangal spliced four seconds of Asian News International (ANI) footage into one of his video posts, he did not expect to be called upon to pay ₹50 lakh or else risk having his channel deleted. Faced with the threat of losing millions of subscribers, he did what he does best. He created a video on the extortion he believed he’d been subject to.

Forging The Narrative

Wed, 28 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

To withstand scrutiny, a forgery must extend beyond the artefact in question to the entire back-story within which it resides. While it used to be that these narratives had to be concocted painstakingly, one instance at a time, modern technology makes it possible to carry out on an industrial scale.

When Wolfgang Beltracchi was finally apprehended in 2010, he had been fooling the art world for nearly four decades. The secret of his success was not in creating perfect replicas of existing works of art, but in convincing buyers that what they were purchasing was real.

Big Data Protection

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Modern privacy law is based on principles of data protection that were first articulated in the 1970s. As a result, it is based on the idea that we should collect as little data as possible to safeguard personal privacy. In the age of AI and big data, that approach is fast losing its relevance.

The first country to seriously address the issue of protecting digital personal data was the United States of America. In a report titled Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens issued in 1973, it set out a list of data protection principles called the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs). FIPPs required organisations to provide notice before collecting personal data and seek consent before processing it. Only as much personal data as was necessary to achieve the specified purpose could be collected, and it could only be used for the purpose specified. Organisations had to keep personal data accurate, complete and up to date, and give individuals the ability to access and amend it as required.

Verifiable Credentials

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We built technology systems to enable data portability only to realise that system-to-system integration is a non-trivial lift. A far simpler solution is to create self-custodial verifiable credentials that are capable of being verified without relying on their issuers.

Back in the day, all we had to rely on were paper records. When we visited a doctor, we carried along with us a file containing all our medical records—prescriptions, diagnostic results, etc, for the doctor to review before treating what currently ailed us. When we went to our bank, it was always with passbook in hand, so that the history of our transactions could be manually updated in its pages for our record. This allowed us to do with this information what we pleased. If we needed a second opinion, we carried that same file to a new doctor so that he or she could read through it without needing to speak to our primary physician. If we applied for a loan from some other bank, we simply showed them our passbook so that they could assure themselves of our creditworthiness.

De-Extinction

Wed, 07 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The recent advances in de-extinction technology offer hope for endangered species. But before we leap to deploy these technologies we should consider the legal and ethical consequences of what we are about to unleash.

Last month, biotech firm Colossal Biosciences announced that it had resurrected the dire wolf, an Ice Age predator that was made famous by the fictional TV series Game of Thrones. As much as the birth of Colossal’s cubs—Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi—might seem like Jurassic Park-style wizardry, it has forced us to consider the consequences of de-extinction technology, its relevance to conservation and the guardrails we must erect to stave off any harmful ecological impact that might result.

Bias is Good

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We have been trained to think that all bias is bad. And that we should do all we can to rid ourselves of it to avoid being unfair. What we often fail to realise is that bias is a shortcut that allows us to cut through the noise and zero in on the data we need to process.

We often think of bias as a flaw that needs to be purged. It’s not. It’s a cognitive shortcut that we need to fine-tune. We are constantly bombarded by shapes, colours, sounds and smells. Even though the human sensory system can collect this information at a rate of approximately 10 million bits per second, our conscious mind can only process 50 bits of information per second. That we are such a successful species, even though we can only process 0.0005% of all the data we collect, is a testament to our brain’s ability to quickly sort the important from the trivial.

Enhanced Geothermal

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If India is to achieve its data centre ambitions, it needs to find new sources of efficient power. While nuclear is a solution, it will take too long to come on stream. We need alternatives, and enhanced geothermal might just be it.

If data is the fuel that powers the digital revolution, data centres are the tanks in which they are stored, primed and kept ready for use when needed. This is why any country looking to play a role in the digital future of the world has no choice but to make sure it has the capacity of a data centre to support that ambition.

Possible Futures

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There are many possible futures for AI. Even if we cannot predict exactly which path it will take, as long as we remain clear-eyed about the possible consequences of the actions we take today, we will be able to mitigate the outcomes that could result over the next few years.

The future arrived quietly, wrapped in convenience.

When they first appeared on the scene in 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) agents were simple. We used them to schedule meetings, write emails and occasionally help negotiate with customer care. We were delighted to outsource these relatively low-stake tasks to a digital assistant that was able to perform them so well. Over time, we began to rely on them implicitly.

DPI Thinking for COP30

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The climate consensus is rapidly unravelling. With the developing world consistently failing to make the level of commitment required to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we need to think differently about achieving sustainable development. Could we apply DPI Thinking to this problem?

It is unreasonable to expect developing countries to commit to costly climate mitigation strategies when the only reason developed nations are where they are is that they used cheap polluting technologies to get there. Having said that, global warming is real, and unless all countries commit to a more climate-friendly approach, we will have no hope of fighting it.

Transparent Take Down

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Content moderation is a wicked problem - that calls on us to balance the fundamental right to speech and expression with the need to prevent the spread of harmful content. This is a fine balance that we need to strike with careful attention to constitutional principles.

In a petition before the Karnataka high court, X (formerly Twitter) has challenged the legality of India’s Sahyog Portal—a central digital repository that tells social media companies which sites they must block access to. This, the company argues, is an attempt to side-step procedures already approved by the Supreme Court under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).

420. The Cost of Cold

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

All we need to do to address our food insecurity is learn to better preserve food after it has been harvested. However, the technology we rely on to do that comes at a great cost. We need to find an alternative approach - one that prevents spoilage without harming the environment.

Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb, opened with an apocalyptic vision of humanity’s near future:

“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”

419. Assembly Theory

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The challenge with regulating technology is that laws always lag behind the technologies they regulate. One way to address this is to adopt a philosophy of incremental regulation that follows in lockstep with technological evolution. This requires a theoretical understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of technology.

Modern technologies are modular, radically interoperable and interdependent. Which is why one of the foremost challenges in regulating them is dealing with complexity. I have long argued for principle-based regulations—in the belief that, if we express it at a high enough level of abstraction, our regulatory intent will be enforceable regardless of the complexity of the underlying technology or the direction in which it evolves.

418. Threading the Needle

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Insurance is a human innovation that ensures that in moments of crisis, no one individual has to bear the weight of misfortune alone. Pooling risk has allowed us to contract, innovate and prosper, but with the ubiquitous availability of granular data, that assurance is starting to be replaced by something colder and more precise.

417. Consent Managers

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The introduction of the term Consent Manager in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act gave rise to considerable speculation. No other data protection law had anything like it, and the law itself was unclear as to what role these entities played. Now that the Rules are with us, things are a little clearer.

When India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) was enacted in 2023, it was the first data protection law to reference an entity called the ‘Consent Manager.’ However, since the Act said very little about what this consent manager was supposed to do, speculation within the private sector was rife.

An Internet for energy

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There is an urgent need to re-design our energy grid to take better advantage of all that digital has to offer. A recent paper describes how we can add a digital layer to existing infrastructure and use this digital energy grid to unlock greater efficiencies. But in order to realise this goal we will need a shift in our regulatory mindset.

We have gotten so accustomed to the near-universal availability of electricity that we barely spare a thought for the infrastructure behind it. Generating stations dotted across the length and breadth of India produce power that is fed into an electricity grid, which carries it to our homes and offices. The entire system works so reliably that we have come to assume there will always be a socket on the wall to charge our phone from, no matter where we are in the country.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Even though the number of users online has steadily increased over the years, conversations have grown increasingly stilted and subdued. This is the Fermi’s Paradox of the online world - even though there are so many of us are online we chose to keep our heads down, knowing that if we don’t, we run the risk of becoming a target for trolls.

Sometimes, hoping for civil engagement on the internet is like shouting into space. Every attempt at communication draws responses that feel alien — like unfamiliar aggressors attacking us in an unknown language.

New Identity Solutions

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last week the UIDAI initiated a process by which private-sector access to the authentication infrastructure would be restored. I have every hope that this will create a new ecosystem of identity service providers that will enable a range of different services - in particular in relation to obligations under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act.

As the Aadhaar case was reaching the Supreme Court, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) began to restrict private access to its authentication infrastructure. It now seems that hard stand is beginning to soften. A new amendment to Aadhaar authentication rules could finally allow us to leverage our identity infrastructure to better unlock greater efficiencies in digital services.

Targeted Legislation

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Narrowly targeting laws to specific countries or companies can have unintended consequences. They can push customers in different directions or serve as an unanticipated impetus for entrepreneurs to think of new and innovative approaches. In both instances, the outcomes are unexpected.

Laws are almost always designed to be broad and aimed at addressing a range of different issues. However, governments sometimes deviate from that approach, enacting targeted legislation aimed at narrow outcomes. The problem is that even though lawmakers come to this process with a clear sense of what they want to achieve, the outcomes of this approach are often not what they intended.

Taking Stock

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It has been over a year since we started to deploy DPI across the globe and it has not been easy. Despite global endorsements and multilateral commitments, actual deployment is hard. But looking back it is quite remarkable how much we have actually managed to achieve.

Among the main thrusts of India’s G20 presidency was the globalization of our approach to Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). By the time our presidency ended, at least a dozen countries had signed MoUs with the Indian government to assist with assessing what DPI they could deploy.

The Report on AI Regulation

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Report on the Regulatory Framework for AI in India strikes the right mix of agile governance and light-touch supervision. However, its reliance on regulatory principles from the Global North could end up stifling innovation. We need to develop a framework that aligns more closely with our interests.

Last week, the Ministry of Information Technology (MeITy) released a Report on the Regulatory Framework for AI in India. While the recommendations themselves are largely non-controversial, the arguments on which they are based suggest an approach to regulation that will hold our artificial intelligence (AI) industry back from achieving all it can.

The DPDP Rules: First Impressions

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The much awaited Digital Personal Data Protection Rules are finally with us and, with that the final piece of the puzzle is in place. While there is a lot to unpack, overall, the Rules follow the Act in terms of simplicity - adding just enough to make it complete without complicating things unduly. That said, there are a few issues that still need to be sorted out.

The draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules are finally with us and the long wait has for the most part been worth it. There is enough detail in the rules to give businesses the clarity they need, but not so much that compliance becomes cumbersome. That said, there are two areas—data breaches and the obligations of Significant Data Fiduciaries — where I believe the government has exceeded its brief. It has in the process greatly increased the burden on Data Fiduciaries.

A Look Back at 2024

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My last column of the year has traditionally been a review of technology policy developments of the year gone by. Even though I had hoped to see the data protection law come into force, at the time of writing it still has not. And so, instead of privacy, the year was dominated by developments in DPI and AI.

Without a doubt, the biggest disappointment of 2024 has to be the fact that India’s data protection law is still not in force despite having managed to get through both houses of Parliament in record time in 2023. The rules that were supposed to be issued this year still haven’t seen the light of day.

Secondary Use of Health Data

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While it is generally advisable to anonymise health data, doing so at population scale would allow us benefit from secondary usese of data. The ABDM envisages this but by additionally deploying Secure Data Environments it should be possible to augment the level of data protection.

When I first saw the original blueprint of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDM), the feature that really jumped out at me was its anonymizer module. This was the first time that a digital building block designed to de-identify personal data was being built directly into the digital workflow and I was excited by the possibilities that this offered.

A New AI Law

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are many who claim that the harms AI can cause can only be addressed by a new legislation specifically designed to address them. That said existing laws have, more often than not, been framed in terms that are broad enough to deal with these harms regardless of the technology that caused them.

In an earlier article in this column, I spoke of a lecture that Justice Easterbrook once delivered on the subject of property in cyberspace. His talk was titled ‘Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse,’ which was his way of highlighting the foolishness of coming up with fresh laws to regulate new technologies when general principles of law already addressed the concerns these new technologies raised.

A DPI for Climate Change

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

AI is a probabilistic, non-deterministic technology. This is the reason why it is capable of doing much of what we appreciate it for. However, this does not align with our legal system that is binary in application. We need to rethink our approach to liability if we are to avail the benefits of AI.

When you spend so much of your time working on India’s digital public infrastructure, it is easy to overlook all the other countries that are building population-scale infrastructure. Sometimes to your detriment.

AI Liability

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

AI is a probalistic, non-deterministic technology. This is the reason why it is capable of doing much of what we appreciate it for. However, this does not align with our legal system that is binary in application. We need to rethink our approach to liability if we are to avail the benefits of AI.

Large language models (LLMs) work so well because they compress human knowledge. They are trained on massive data-sets and convert the words they scan into tokens. Then, by assigning weights to these tokens, they build vast neural networks that identify the most likely connections between them. Using this system of organizing information, they generate responses to prompts—building them, word by word, to create sentences, paragraphs and even large documents by simply predicting the next most appropriate word.

Emerging Global trends in Data Protection and Privacy

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At SAMVAAD 2024, I participated in a panel discussion that examined the evolving landscape of global data protection and privacy regulations, with a focus on some recent trends and their impact across various industries. The panel was moderated by Venkatesh Hariharan and included Chanchal Sarkar from the Department of Economic Affairs, Mathew Chacko from SpiceRoute Legal and Nehaa Chaudhari from Ikigai Law

Tech Solutions for Use Limitation

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Account Aggregator system has implemented most data protection principles directly into code. With one exception - use limitation. A recent paper offers a technical solution to this problem through sharding and confidential multiparty compute.

As regular readers of this column will know by now, I have long advocated the benefits of embedding regulatory principles directly into digital infrastructure. Having worked on different versions of India’s digital public infrastructure, I have come to see, first-hand, how well this techno-legal approach addresses the many challenges that will arise in the context of a rapidly digitizing economy.

Evolving Policy and Regulation in an Interconnected Open Finance World

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At Samvaad 2024, I sat down with Ivan Mortimer Schutts for a fireside chat on Open Finance policy and regulations around the world.

A Tidal Wave of Disruption

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Since the training of lawyers still takes place in an artisanal, masters-apprentice model how will we get senior lawyers if we replace all our junior lawyers with AI?

Last week, I was speaking at a conference in Singapore on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the practice of law. On my panel were lawyers from four different continents and it was clear that we were all falling over ourselves to incorporate AI into our respective law firms.

Networked Privacy

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Privacy laws offer were designed for a time before networked privacy. The agency they offer is useless now. Laws alone cannot protect our data. We need to do additional privacy work to secure it.

I remember an audience member once asked Justice Srikrishna|Justice B.N. Srikrishna a pointed question about Privacy in the context of social media at one of the public consultations held in relation to his report on data protection.

AI Optimisation

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

AI engine optimisation has already started to replace SEO.

In the early days of the internet, finding content was a challenge. Even though hundreds of people were creating new websites everyday, unless you knew their URLs, there was no way to find them. In those early days, I used a protocol called Gopher to access remote content. Servers called Gopherholes provided rudimentary search functionality by combining various online resources into a unified system that users could navigate in order to find what they were looking for. There was also a primitive search engine called Veronica that allowed us to search for information across multiple Gopherholes. While all of this was better than memorizing a string of URLs, it was still very hard to find what you needed.

The Ban Reflex

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The first reflexive reaction of the government is to ban what they don’t approve off. This is pointless, leads to misaligned objectives and often has little legal basis.

Last week, after a couple of days of torrential rain, an unexpected visitor showed up at our house. Just as I was getting ready to go to work in the morning, I saw a large furry creature climb over the neighbour’s wall, saunter across our garden and slip through the small gate that separates our garden from the garage. At first glance, I thought it was a bandicoot, but something about the shape of its body and the way it ran across the grass gave me pause. Unlike rats that hug the wall when they run, this creature was boldly running across the lawn, its bushy tail firmly parallel to the grass. In a flash, it occurred to me that my unexpected guest was a grey mongoose.

Acquiring Genetic Data

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How does one deal with personal data in an M&A transaction - particularly when the data is highly sensitive genetic information collected for a specific purpose.

The genetic testing company 23andMe offers ordinary people a simple service for them to better understand their genetic roots. All they need to do is order the company’s saliva kits, spit into a tube provided and mail it back. The company then sequences the genetic material in the sample and generates a report about their ancestry, the risk that they may be carriers of disease markers or have a predisposition to certain illnesses, and how their body may react to certain medications. To date, over 15 million customers have submitted their personal genetic data to 23andMe.

Homo Privaticus

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Consent based data protection relies on contractual frameworks. But the harms we need to protect against are more addressed under tort law.

Economists assume that individuals act rationally, always responding to incentives in their own self-interest. They are assumed by many economic models to have complete information and the ability to perfectly calculate costs and benefits. This stereotype is what economists refer to as Homo Economicus - the abstract individual used in rational choice axioms and on which most economic models are constructed.

Data Transfer Interoperability

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We should consider using the Global CBPR framework for cross border data transfers.

When Justice B.N. Srikrishna first introduced the concept of data localisation into the draft data protection law he proposed in 2018, I was not in favour of it. India is the outsourcing capital of the world and restrictions like these that would hamper the free flow of data across borders were bound to have a detrimental effect on the sector.

GTS 2024: Open-Source AI for Global South

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

At the GTS Innovation Dialogue in 2024, I moderated a discussion on Open-Source AI for the Global South that looked to understand how open-source AI can democratize technology, drive innovation, and foster transparency, particularly in developing regions.

Learning to Read

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

AI really comes into its own when we need customised solutions at scale. If we can identify use cases in which human intervention is simply not practical given the complexity and diversity of outcomes, AI might just be able to offer a way out. Such as, for instance, to provide bespoke education outcomes.

It has been over two years since Generative AI first burst on the scene—and I have to say that I have grown increasingly frustrated with it.

The QUAD Should Support Digital Public Infrastructure. This is why.

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to digital transformation, representatives from across regions—from the Caribbean to the Indo-Pacific, often ask, “What choices do we have?” These countries are faced with a difficult decision—either pay the high cost charged by global vendors for deploying these systems or opt for significantly cheaper solutions from firms sometimes subsidized by undemocratic states. For nations where price is an important factor, there is often no option but the latter, despite the democratic risk and lack of clarity on how these firms operate and manage their data. These systems are becoming increasingly embedded in the digital transformation of governance across the world.

A DPI for Non-Financial Data

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

India’s latest DPI focuses on leveraging non-financial data. By offering API-based access to a number of different data sources it will give lenders additional ways in which to evaluate the credit-worthiness of potential borrowers.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of visiting the Amul factory in Anand, Gujarat. The father of India’s White Revolution, Verghese Kurien, was my grand-uncle, and as his guests, we were given a grand tour.

As a young child, the highlight of the weekend was being able to wander through the chocolate factory, surrounded by so much molten chocolate that it had to be transported from one machine to the other in overhead pipes. I vividly recall how one of the pipes had sprung a leak and marvelled at the fact that the factory manager had strategically placed a bucket below it to catch milk chocolate as it dripped down. This was the closest I was ever going to get to Willy Wonka.

The Grand Bargain

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There comes a point in time when citizens voluntarily opt to formalise their business - recognising that the benefits they will receive are worth the downside of coming within the tax net. Countries can leverage this notion to unlock much needed revenue by following a three-step process.

Despite all that has been said about the success of India’s digital transformation, questions are still being asked as to whether the digital public infrastructure (DPI) we are so proud of actually reaches those who really need it. And, if it does, whether the intended beneficiaries are actually using it.

The Loss of Immunity

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While the world has been agog with the news of the arrest of the CEO of Telegram followed in quick succession by the decision to boot X (formerly Twitter) out of Brazil, a decision in the US is likely to have a much more far-reaching impact on how content is delivered online.

At the dawn of the internet, almost all web-based businesses were located in the US. In order to protect the nascent online space, the US government enacted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a provision that shielded network operators from being punished for what their users posted. As the internet spread around the world, other countries followed suit—as a result of which social media platforms enjoy similar immunity wherever they operate.

Synthetic Biology

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While synthetic biology offers us many significant benefits, there is a risk that these benefits will accrue to the wealthy nations and corporations that currently control almost all cutting edge research in the field. To secure our interests India needs to participate in global discussions on the subject. And increase our investments in the sector.

We are witnessing the birth of remarkable new discipline called synthetic biology, a brand new field of study that leverages advances in genetic engineering and bio-computing to develop new biological systems that have been designed to perform specific functions. According to Boston Consulting Group, synthetic biology will, by the end of the decade, account for more than a third of global output—nearly $30 trillion in value. This will force businesses in sectors as diverse as health and beauty, fashion and textiles, food and agriculture, and mining and construction to come to terms with such significant disruption that it could upend the ways in which they have traditionally functioned.

ON Courts

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The traditional approach to the digital transformation of governance has been to build full-stack solutions that are narrowly geared to addressing specific problems. This is highly inefficient and unless we commit to designing them so that they use shared, re-useable building blocks we are simply not going to achieve the outcomes we need.

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the launch of ON Courts (Open Networked Courts) in Kerala, possibly the most creative re-imagining of the justice delivery system attempted in the country to date. Rather than merely adding new digital layers on top of existing non-digital workflows, this bold redesign of the judicial system re-examines how processes at the heart of the system ought to operate.

A Commitment to Reuse

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On 10 March 1876, Alexander Graham-Bell made the world’s first telephone call when he called his assistant, Thomas Augustus Watson, over a copper wire that ran from one room in the house to the next. This one-sided conversation marked the start of a communication revolution that continues to evolve, with steady improvements that keep extending the geographical and spatial boundaries within which we converse.

Storytelling Reimagined

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

AI will fundamentally change the ways in which films are made. We will no longer need actors and cinematographers. But rather than worry about how this might affect the current film-making process, we should embrace the change that will come and use it to think up new approaches to story-telling.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Agrim Gupta pointed out that artificial intelligence (AI) systems today are capable of generating 10 times more pixels every two years. Based on his analysis of the rate at which AI-generated video is improving, he concluded that if things continue at this pace, we will have AI-generated TV shows by 2029 and full AI-generated movies by 2031.

Open AI Innovation

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

All innovations build on those that came before. It is important to strike a balance between leveraging intellectual property protection for commercial benefit and stifling innovation in the process. And this is particularly relevant in the context of AI.

Towards the end of 1901, Guglielmo Marconi set out to conduct an ambitious experiment. At the time, it was believed that since electromagnetic waves (like light) travelled in straight lines, radio waves could not be used to transmit messages across large distances—much like how even the most powerful telescope could not catch visual signals from places located beyond the earth’s horizon.

Are We Willing to Change

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

India’s new data protection law will require businesses to make significant changes to the ways in which they conduct their business. To the point where they will have to fundamentally re-imagine their ways of working. It is not clear to me that many of them understand the sheer magnitude of what that entails.

Whenever I speak to my clients about how India’s new Digital Personal Data Protection law will affect their operations, it is almost always their sales teams that express the most consternation. “How are we expected to do our jobs if this new law comes into effect?” they ask me, “What are we supposed to do if we can’t call people to see if they want to buy our products?”

DPI for Competition

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024 is so heavily influenced by European regulation that it feels like yet another example of premature imitation. Which is strange considering that we can so easily leverage our DPI to deliver much more nuanced outcomes.

Countries around the world are looking for ways in which to address the challenge of competition in the digital world.

In America, there are a number of bills before the US Congress seeking to provide legislative avenues through which this problem can be tackled. Both the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have initiated a number of high profile antitrust lawsuits against Big Tech companies. Europe has already enacted two significant legislations—the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act — and has, if anything, further ramped up its enforcement actions against Big Tech.

Digitally Accessible

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

One would have thought that digital technologies might have made this world a more inclusive place. As a matter of fact it has not. But there is a need for us to do better. A moral - and even economic - necessity to make this a more disabled friendly world.

There are nearly 1.3 billion people with a disability in the world—60 million of whom live in India. And yet, despite various statutory and regulatory measures that have been put in place to integrate them better with society, most still face significant challenges when it comes to finding gainful employment.

Time Limited Arguments

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone agrees that there is an urgent need to reform many aspects of the judicial system. One way to do this might be to re-consider the reliance we currently place on oral advocacy and try and find an alternative way of doing things. Maybe even get rid of it entirely.

In their book, The Court on Trial, Aparna Chandra, Sital Kalantry and William Hubbard have taken a data-driven approach to assessing the performance of the Indian Supreme Court. Using data-sets created from over a million Supreme Court cases, they try to find answers to whether our apex court is in fact a “people’s court”; whether certain individuals (senior counsels with high name recognition) have inordinate influence on outcomes; whether the Chief Justice (as Master of the Roster) has outsize influence through the ability to strategically assign cases to benches of his or her choice; and whether the promise of post-retirement postings could influence judicial decisions towards the end of a judge’s term.

AI Companions

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

One of the fastest growing categories of AI services is artificial companions. Recent advances in large language models have significantly accelerated its proliferation. But as much as there are benefits to conversational engagement with artificial intelligence, there are psychological implications we will have to consider.

The tech world has been abuzz with Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson accusing OpenAI of using a voice “eerily similar” to her own in the latest version of its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. While openai_key.txt has denied the voice is hers, the controversy sparked a debate around artists’ legal right to control the use of their likeness in the age of AI.

Good Governance

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Good governance often calls for placing the values of the organisation ahead of short term gains. This is particularly important in AI, where the demands of investor to make quick returns can very easily incentivise companies to play fast and loose with safety.

When openai_key.txt was founded in 2015, its primary objective was to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole.” The path it chose to achieve this was to build large language models, a computationally intensive exercise that had only just become achievable at scale because of recent advances in modern chip design.

Diversity Through AI

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to significantly enhance our digital public infrastructure by bringing variety to a DPI approach that has so far been optimised for standardisation.

Last month, at an event in Bangalore, a select audience was given a glimpse of what the future of artificial intelligence (AI) might look like. In the room were companies from across the AI ecosystem, presenting what they were building and getting to know what else was going on in the space. There were product demonstrations, ecosystem presentations and workshops, all of which were rolled up into a grand vision of what it would take to make India the AI-use-case capital of the world.️️️

Controlling AI Export

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There has been growing concerns around the risks of open source AI. In the recent past these have begun to manifest themselves in the form of export restrictions on open source AI models - that could have a deleterious effect on India’s AI strategy.

In the late 1980s, concerns began to arise about the privacy of email communication. Though not yet as ubiquitous as it was destined to become, email had already become a common enough means of exchanging messages that people had begun to worry about what would happen if they were intercepted. It was this anxiety that Phil Zimmermann set out to address when he created Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a software program designed to make online communications more secure.

Rethinking Global Finance: In Conversation with Rahul Matthan

Fri, 10 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My discussion with Anil Padmanabhan on The Finternet and its blockchain-based approach to improving the global financial system.

Open Source Governance

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is a strange aversion in government circles to the use of open source software. I am no entirely sure where it comes from but I can try and debunk some of the misgivings they have. In most instances, releasing code as open source is actually a good idea.

This year, as with nearly every recent election, questions were raised about the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs). While the Supreme Court upheld their use in elections, when asked if the source code of EVM machines could be released for open source use, it tersely shut down that line of argument, pointing out that if the source code is released, it would be misused.

Ideas for Acceleration

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Much of the reason why India has not yet achieved its full potential is because we simply have not invested in the institutional foundations of the Indian State. But, as Karthik Muralidharan describes in his authoratative book on the subject, there is reason to be optimistic.

Since so much of my work lies at the intersection of law and technology, I’m always interested in theories of governance. If I can understand how governance works, I believe I will be better informed as to how technology can be used to make it more effective. Which is why, ever since I heard that it was being written, I’ve been waiting to read Karthik Muralidharan’s tome, Accelerating India’s Development.

The Finternet

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A new paper from the Bank for International Settlements proposes the creation of a unified ledger and the tokenisation of everything. If it is successful, this could represent the most fundamental re-imagining of the banking system since the Medicis.

Last year I wrote about how we might reimagine the modern financial system by creating a unified ledger. I based the article on a speech by Agustin Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements in which he argued in favour of digital ledgers and tokenised deposits:

Governance frameworks to support DPI

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure put together a series of videos on various aspects of Digital Public Infrastructure. I helped them understand how legal and governance frameworks can be designed for DPI and my idea that legal principles can be embedded into code.

Getting AI to Work for You

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Artificial intelligence might eventually replace us. But it still has a long way to go. In the meantime, rather than fretting about what might be, we should learn to use it so that we can make the most of all the efficiencies it offers. Here is how I do that.

When ChatGPT was first made publicly available, I remember marvelling at the quality of its output and thinking that AI had finally improved to the point where it might be good enough to stand-in for me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, if I could describe what I’d like my article to cover and have AI write it for me.

Age Tokens

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

One of the more worrisome provisions of India’s new data protection law has to do with processing of children’s data - and in particular, how data fiduciaries should go about verifying the age of those whose data they process. Thanks to India’s digital public infrastructure, I believe we may have a novel solution.

Among the more worrisome provisions of India’s new Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, is Section 9 that imposes an obligation on all data fiduciaries to obtain a parent’s verifiable consent before they process the personal data of a child. What this means is that, before collecting any personal data, businesses will have to ascertain whether the person to whom it relates is a child or not.

A New Model for UPI

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For the longest time, questions have been raised about the business model for UPI and how the industry should charge for its services. The government has prohibited MDR on UPI transactions, but it should still be possible for us to develop a new revenue model.

It is hard to argue with the success of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). With over 12 billion transactions processed each month, it is already, by an order of magnitude, the largest digital payment system by volume in the world. Given its consistently high rate of growth, National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) stated ambition of crossing 1 billion daily transactions is looking more achievable with each passing month. Despite these truly impressive statistics, however, concern continues to be raised about the long-term viability of its business model.

In Favour of DPI

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Last year there was widespread support for India’s DPI approach—with countries around the world hailing its achievements, and looking to emulate them. Over the past few months, however, the voices of dissent have grown steadily louder. Rather than allow arguments against DPI to go unanswered, I thought it best to deal with them head-on.

Last year saw tremendous enthusiasm around the concept of digital public infrastructure (DPI) during the G20 and after. What I didn’t realise at the time was that, lurking just beneath the surface, were strong undercurrents of disapproval.

Casino or Computer

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Cryptocurrency regulation has, so far, focussed on been on the mitigating the risk to speculative investors. But there is a far more important innovation that is embeded into the architecture and design of modern crypto currency. This is what regulators should be looking to better understand.

Last week, the price of Bitcoin reached a record high. Friends who just a few months ago were boasting about how cleverly they had exited before the crash were now bemoaning the fact that they no longer held crypto.

Technophobia

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We tend to resist change. We worry about the ways in which it could alter our existing way of life and the harms that could result as a consequence. But these technological changes almost always end up being nowhere near as frightening as they first seemed.

Last week, I came across a newspaper article about the perils of a new form of entertainment. This scourge was, the piece argued, “a vehicle of pure moral and religious instruction” that exerted, on all who used it, a “deteriorating moral influence.” It had “become one of the most momentous influences acting on the popular mind” to the point where it would be sheer “rashness to disregard” the “presumptive evidence of danger” that it posed.

Monopoly Over Dematerialised Violence

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Advances in technology have transformed our societal interactions in ways that challenge the state’s monopoly over violence. Today large tech companies (not governments) determine how our interactions take place. Which means that we need to rethink governance structures if the state is to continue to protect its citizens.

In 1919, Max Weber delivered a lecture titled “Politics as a Vocation," in which he argued for the first time that the state has a monopoly over the use of physical force. He was looking for a way to justify the state’s use of force and chose to do so by elevating it to the level of a crucial feature of the social contract.

AI Models Run Into A Regulatory Roadblock In India

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For the Fineprint on NDTV Profit, I sat down with Payaswini Upadhyay to discuss the recent AI advisory that called on intermediaries rolling out artificial intelligence products in India to register their models. We discussed the implications of such a regulation on AI development in the country.

Learning from Failure

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We need to encourage a culture of failure around AI so that when it fails we can understand why and disseminate those learnings throughout the industry. It is only when we can fail without fear that we will learn to do what it takes to build safe AI systems.

Last week saw the release of yet another artificial intelligence (AI) model, Gemini 1.5, Google’s much-awaited response to ChatGPT. As has now become the norm, on the day of its release, social media was saturated with gushing paeans about the features of this new model and how it represented an improvement over those that had come before. But that initial euphoria died down quickly. Within days, reports started trickling in about the images generated by this new AI model, and how it was compensating so heavily to avoid some of the racial inaccuracies implicit in earlier models that its creations were woke to the point of ludicrousness—with some being downright offensive.

Virtual Power Plants

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone says we need to embrace renewable energy to address the challenges of climate change. But integrating variable supplies of electricity into our current grid is easier said than done. One way to do that might be to virtualise our power plants.

While I am not knowledgeable enough to opine on all the various complexities of climate change, I have on occasion reflected in this column on the role that technology can play in easing our transition to renewables. I have often commented on how we might need to make fundamental changes in the way our energy infrastructure is designed.

CAS Regulations for AI

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The PM-EAC suggests that AI should be regulated as a complex adaptive system. While there is a lot to say about this approach, in its articulation, the paper fails to take into account many of the essential features of modern AI.

Last month, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC) released a paper proposing a new approach to regulating Artificial Intelligence (AI). It argues that while our current approach of enacting reactionary regulations might work in a static, linear system with predictable risks, it is unlikely to work in the context of AI, which comprises emergent, non-linear systems. It argues that since AI is a dynamic network of diverse agents whose interactions generate emergent behaviours, we need to think of it as a complex adaptive system (CAS) and design regulations accordingly.

The Future of Digital Public Infrastructure - A Thesis for Rapid Global Adoption

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

India’s presidency of the G20 in 2023 placed digital public infrastructure (DPI) on the global map.¹ Until November 2022, DPI as a term did not exist for most people around the world. In a period of nine months, between December 2022 and August 2023, not only was the grammar and syntax of DPI created, but a suggested framework for DPI was also accepted by the G20 member states.²

There were two tracks in the G20 discussions during India’s presidency that dealt directly with DPI: the Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG),³ under what is known as the Sherpa Track, and the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion,⁴ under the Finance Track. Both tracks arrived at a consensus on the suggested principles for building DPI. To be clear, the use of technology for inclusion is a concept that has existed for a long time.⁵ What is new is that, for the first time,⁶ a framework—marrying technology, governance, and the role of communities—has been agreed upon multilaterally.

Liars Dividend

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is widespread consternation around the impact that deep-fakes are going to have on all of society this year. But most legislative counter-measures are oriented towards shooting the messenger. We need a different path. Thankfully we have been here before.

A couple of weeks ago, a video featuring cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar started circulating on social media. In it, he was talking up a mobile game called Skyward Aviator Quest, marvelling at how his daughter was able to make ₹180,000 on it every day and pointing out how amazed he was that this was possible using an app that was essentially free.

Embracing ODR

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The ODR approach can offer the soon-to-be-formed Data Protection Board mechanisms that are digital from the ground up. By integrating various elements of India’s digital public infrastructure into the ODR process adopted, we can ensure that data protection in India is techno-legal from the get-go.

Over the past decade-and-a-half, I’ve had the good fortune of having witnessed India’s rapid digitisation from the sidelines. As exciting as it has been to see this transformation from up close, I’ve felt a mild sense of unease about what will happen if things go wrong. Given how frustratingly analogue our dispute resolution process is, it will matter little that we have streamlined our commercial interactions if we still settle disagreements the old-fashioned way.

Governing India's Digital Revolution

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Grand Tamasha podcast with Milan Vaishnav. We discussed my book, The Third Way and India’s technolegal approach to data governance.

The Zone of Mischief

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As we look to adopt techno-legal regulations in various different aspects of our technology driven world we need to be mindful of the need to retain a “zone of mischief” - a level of flexibility that will offer us the freedom to innovate and improve.

I have long been a proponent of ‘techno-legal’ governance — a hybrid system of laws and code where laws and regulations are embedded directly into the technology system. It has become increasingly possible for us to encode legal requirements directly into the ecosystems upon which we depend. Given that neither the laissez-faire approach to governance that the US pioneered nor the regulation-heavy approach taken by Europe has proven successful at regulating digital spaces, I am hopeful that this hybrid approach will offer us new ways in which we can extract the benefits of technology while safeguarding ourselves against its harms.

Micro Robots

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The idea of micro-robots is about to make the transition from science fiction to science fact. But before we can take advantage of all that this new technology has to offer we will need to consider the various legal, ethical and societal concerns that this new technology can raise.

In the 1988 Steven Spielberg film Inner Space, Dennis Quaid’s character uses some sort of miniaturization technology to shrink himself so small that he can be injected into the body of a human being in a tiny submersible to reach various organs and systems. While our ability to miniaturize humans remains within the realm of science fiction, thanks to remarkable advancements in nanotechnology, it is becoming possible for us to achieve some of what was described in the movie through the use of tiny machines capable of operating at that scale.

NYT v. the LLMs

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In the last week of 2023, the New York Times sued openai_key.txt and Microsoft for copyright infringement. The allegations in the complaint go to the core of how generative AI works and could shape the manner in which AI works going forward.

As if there wasn’t a more convenient time in the year to do this, the New York Times chose the last week of 2023 to sue OpenAI for copyright infringement. Which is why instead of putting my feet up and relaxing, I had to fire up my computer to figure out whether this was the end of generative AI that so many were saying it was going to be.

GenAICon2023 - AI and the DPDP Act 2023

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At the GenAI conference held in Bangalore, I conducted a session on the implications of the DPDP Act 2023 on Generative AI.

Looking Back on 2023

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

2023 was the year in which DPI assumed its rightful place on the world stage. It was also the year in which artificial intelligence came into its own. There has never been a more interesting time to be engaged in technology policy.

This is the last Ex Machina article of the year and, as in years past, I wanted to use the opportunity to reflect on the year that was.

The Big Telecom Reform

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Telecommunications Bill 2023 offers a radical new approach to telecom regulation. It replaces the license-based regime with a more legislative approach that can only be good for the sector. There is much that remains to be done to get this right but the law is a step in the right direction.

Earlier this week, the government introduced the Telecommunications Bill, 2023, in Parliament. It is intended to replace a law that was enacted over 100 years ago to govern telegraph communications, but one that has since been applied in India to every evolution of communication technology to date. If enacted into law, this will reset the way telecom is regulated in India.

Rahul Matthan on AI, Privacy and Digital Public Infrastructure

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Ideas of India podcast with Shruti Rajagopalan.

We discussed my book, The Third Way, and in general about India’s digital public infrastructure revolution, the unified payments system, AI, blockchain, design issues around Aadhaar, privacy, and much more.

Rahul Matthan Speaks the Protocol

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Seen and the Unseen podcast with Amit Varma.

We discussed my two books, Privacy 3.0 and The Third Way, as well as many other topics. The conversation was wide-ranging and the entire episode runs for over 5 hours. So you are warned.

AI for the Global South

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The European Union has agreed to a new law to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) by imposing transparency requirements on general AI models and stronger restrictions on more powerful models. The US offers a broader, more nuanced framework. However there exists a North-South divide - with the Global South viewing AI as beneficial as contrasted to the more risk-focused approach of the Global North.

Last week, Commissioner Thierry Breton announced that a historic deal had been reached between the countries of the EU to enact a new law to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). With this, Europe will become the first geographical region to enact regulation that stipulates how AI development and use should take place.

GTS 2023 - Book Discussion on The Third Way

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At GTS 2023, we had a panel discussion moderated by Jane Munga on my book, The Third Way and the new approach to data governance that has now been made possible by DPI. The conversation featured Nandan Nilekani and Tino Cuéllar.

Human Writing

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

When man invented writing he enabled the creation of a hive-mind that eventually lead to the establishment of civilisation as we know it. The advent of large language models has exponentially expanded that hive-mind but has it done so at the cost of our humanity?

In his book Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond explains why the transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled farming was such a major shift in the human story. Once humans learnt to farm, they could put down roots, both literally and metaphorically. Once they were able to grow food instead of having to forage for it, they were forced to organize themselves better, develop specialized tools and skills to use them, and learn to rely on fellow humans. As these agricultural communities grew, people began to differentiate themselves by the skills they had and roles they performed, forming guilds and ‘caste’ groups based on these. This gave rise to the complex modern society that we inhabit.

Governing the Governors

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The events surrounding OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman highlight the challenges in establishing effective governance structures that can appropriately control AI development. Given the profit motivation of private enterprise and the other narrow commercial interests that they are constrained by, we need to develop alternate robust frameworks that can operate beyond the influence of private commercial entities.

All anyone was talking about last week was OpenAI.

Over the course of five short days, its chief executive officer Sam Altman was fired by the board, hired by Microsoft and reinstated as the head of OpenAI. But, while the events of last week were reported from the perspective of the 700 odd employees who threatened to walk out if their CEO was not reinstated, the tech giant whose $13 billion commitment to a company over whose board it had little control was imprudent to say the least, and also of the 37-year-old CEO who remains the undisputed face of today’s Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution, despite the drama, the long-term effects of the week’s events will be most deeply felt by the governance community, whose attempt at controlling the most transformative technology in over a century has truly failed.

No-one Left Behind

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

To ensure equitable access to digital public infrastructure, it’s crucial to address the digital divide. This involves extending connectivity infrastructure globally, reimagining digital systems for offline accessibility, and enhancing digital literacy. Innovations like offline Aadhaar enrolment and QR-code-based services, along with user-friendly design, are key to making DPI inclusive and accessible to all, regardless of their technological proficiency.

Among the concerns often raised in connection with the proliferation of digital public infrastructure (DPI) is the worry that nations that are reliant on digital systems for the delivery of public services will end up excluding those incapable of accessing these digital solutions from the benefits these systems were built to offer. As digitisation efforts accelerate across the globe, the schism between those who can access these systems and those who cannot is only going to get more acute.

Brazilian DPI

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Given the similarities between the digital infrastructure that both Brazil and India have built it makes sense that as the new President of the G20, Brazil can build on all the work that India did during its Presidency to raise global attention to the concept of digital public infrastructure.

Last week, I was in Brasilia, speaking at Brazil Innovation Week, 2023. I’d been invited to talk about how India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) offers a new approach to data governance and I was glad for the opportunity to test for myself whether the ideas I had set out in my new book held good in the Brazilian context. But while I was expecting to talk about all the cool DPI solutions that India had built, it was not until I got there that I realized that not only was Brazil adept at using technology for public administration, in certain respects, its ministry of management and innovation could teach India a thing or two about digital governance.

Pandora's Box

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The myth of Pandora’s box, where opening a forbidden container unleashed the world’s evils but also hope, parallels scientific discovery. Each breakthrough, like CRISPR’s medical potential, brings unforeseen challenges, as seen with its controversial use in gene editing. Technologies intended for good, like the internet or drones, can be subverted for harm. Regulation alone can’t contain such knowledge; instead, we must design incentives to align technology use with societal goals, preparing us to handle the inevitable consequences of human curiosity.

A New Delhi Effect

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The “Brussels Effect” is the phenomenon where other countries adopt regulation similar to the EU’s and as a result ends up extending Europe’s regulatory dominance. However, regulations like the GDPR have faced criticism for its burdensome compliance requirements. India’s DPI approach offers a new data governance model. But in order for this approach to be globally successful, strong regulatory institutions and a commitment to techno-legal governance are necessary.

The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted in 2016. Since then, over 150 countries have enacted laws that incorporate its principles into their legislative frameworks with next to no effort on the part of European legislators. This phenomenon—where Europe is able to influence the shape and direction of global regulation by doing little more than putting in place a bespoke domestic regulatory regime—has come to be known as the Brussels Effect.

The Third Way

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

There is a commonly held belief that there are basically three different approaches when it comes to data governance - the US, the Chinese and the European. But both the US and China leave regulation in the hands of technology companies - while the EU imposes regulations that these companies need to comply with. The middle path is the Indian techno-legal approach.

Anu Bradford’s new book, Digital Empires, is about the imperial forces battling for control of the modern world. She posits that there are three distinct digital ecosystems fighting for dominance—the US (largely market-driven) system, the Chinese (state-driven) approach, and the European (rights-driven) model.All governments have to make hard trade-offs when determining how their digital economies should be regulated—between the extent to which innovation needs to be encouraged and the effect this will have on civil liberties, societal equality, and national security. The three digital empires that currently dominate the global landscape have each gone about making these trade-offs in significantly different ways.

No Time for False Modesty

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Despite India’s success in pushing the DPI agenda during its Presidency of the G20 there have been some criticisms about the actual impact of its financial inclusion efforts. While there is no doubt that we are prone to embellishment, India’s achievements in the area are substantial. Criticisms about coercion are also unfounded given some level of market orchestration is necessary — especially in low and middle-income countries that are looking for accelerated development.

Solar Geoengineering

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

With the number of extreme weather events that occurred in 2023, there is a new urgency around the need to find alternate and innovative solutions to the problem of climate change. One easy option is solar geo-engineering - that can be implemented by startups that raise donor funds to send up balloons carrying sulphates. That said this is not without its fair share of concerns. Not the least of which is uneven cooling and the impact on monsoon patterns in India.

Managing AI Disruption

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Society’s response to disruptive technologies like AI follows a three-stage pattern: regulation, adaptation, and acceptance. Regulations tend to focus on first-order concerns, but overlook second-order consequences like the potential erosion of democratic values due to increased transparency of knowledge.

The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack of 2008 was arguably the most heinous violation of India’s territorial integrity. Apart from the loss of lives and wanton destruction of property, the fact that an enemy nation could send armed fighters to South Mumbai, where they indiscriminately shot and killed innocent civilians, left such a scar on the national psyche that the event still lingers in our collective consciousness.

What the Personal Data Protection Act Means for India

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Grand Tamasha podcast with Milan Vaishnav. We discussed my book, The Third Way and India’s technolegal approach to data governance.

The Governance Module

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As more and more of our transactions take place within environments that are digital from end-to-end, the easier it is for us to embed regulations directly into the code that these environments are made of. To do that we will need to build governance modules into our digital public infrastructure.

Laws and regulations describe the constraints within which a society functions. They do so, in part, to provide structure and predictability to our interactions. The more complex and inter-dependent our social and commercial circumstances, the greater is our reliance on these systems of legal ordering.

New Delhi Declaration

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In an increasingly polarised world, the 2023 New Delhi Declaration at the Leaders Summit of the G20 was a diplomatic triumph. But as you read through the pages of the text it is striking how much it covers in terms of new technologies and their governance.

In the end, the 2023 G20 Leaders’ Summit was over almost before it started. Halfway through Day 1, Indian negotiators had hammered out a consensus on the Leaders’ Declaration that, in the words of India’s G20 Sherpa, had “absolutely no dissent, no footnotes, no chair summaries." It was that rare example of a well-achieved global consensus. With 112 outcomes and presidency documents, India’s was arguably also the most productive G20 presidency, having more than tripled the substantive output of previous presidencies. That all this got done in less time than was available makes it all the more impressive.

DPI Solutions

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Rather than simply building DPI building blocks, countries that are looking to follow India’s DPI Approach should look to develop DPI solutions that leverage individual elements of the DPI stack in an interoperable manner.

With the Leaders Summit taking place later this week, India’s presidency of the G20 is fast drawing to a close. In anticipation, commentators have already begun to critically examine all that India has (or has not) achieved in its presidency. While they have expressed disappointment over the failure to secure consensus among member countries on issues like the war in Ukraine and climate change, there is near-universal acknowledgement of India’s success in raising global awareness of the role that digital public infrastructure (DPI) can play in addressing development challenges across sectors of an economy.

Proof of Humanness

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Worldcoin has been designed to address the concern that in a world saturated with artificial intelligence we are going to need a proof of humanness. As true as that might be, I believe we need to go much further. And also tackle truth in content.

I am a sucker for new technology. Whenever a new gadget comes along, I feel almost compelled to buy it so that I can see for myself how it works and what it can do for me. As soon as a new digital service opens its doors to beta testers, I am almost always as far up at the head of the line as my time zone will permit. Which is why the moment I heard of WorldCoin, the first thing I did was identify the locations in India where registration services were being offered.

We've Got Work To Do

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is not perfect. There are many things I would have liked to change. But it has been enacted and it is the law we’ve been given. It is time to stop the hand-wringing and get on with working with what we have.

In the end, it was all over almost before it started. Within a week, India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, went from being presented before the Lok Sabha to being passed by both Houses of Parliament, receiving a Presidential assent and being notified in the Official Gazette. Having tried to visualise what this moment might be like for over a decade, now that we have a data protection regime, it feels almost anti-climactic.

The Business End of the DPDP Act

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

India’s new data protection law is simple and principle based. But it will require companies big and small to make radical changes to the way they operate. And I don’t think businesses fully realise the changes they are going to have to make.

On Monday, the Lok Sabha voted to pass the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. By the end of the week it had made it through the Rajya Sabha, received Presidential assent and was notified in the Official Gazette. When he withdrew the previous draft of the data protection law, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had promised that we would have a new law in force before the conclusion of India’s Monsoon Session of Parliament. This week, he delivered.

The new data bill will mark a paradigm shift

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha yesterday. Even though there are a few provisions in this draft that I’d have preferred were left out, I believe this is the closest we have ever come to a law that is appropriate for our current stage of maturity in data protection.

India is probably the last significant nation without an active data protection regime. As a result, notwithstanding the depth of our tech industry, we have none of the institutional infrastructure that is commonplace elsewhere in the world — both within private sector entities for them to comply or in the executive branch of the government to enforce.

Studying Human Infection

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The practice of infecting human subjects with disease under controlled circumstances to better understand how the body reacts to a new treatment is as old as medical science itself. The reason why it is not common in India is because of ethical and legal concerns. If we can find our way past that this could be a useful approach.

Controlled human infection studies, also known as challenge trials, involve a process by which test subjects are intentionally infected with diseases under controlled circumstances to test a new vaccine or pharmaceutical drug to see if it can successfully achieve its medical aims.

Mad AI Disease

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Large language models require training data sets in order to continuously improve. However, given the rate at which models are growing we are soon going to run out of training data. And synthetic data is not the solution we thought it might be.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year or so, you, by now, have not only heard of the many wonders of generative AI, it is more than likely that you have already experimented with its many manifestations. Few technologies in human memory have, over such a short span of time, demonstrated their potential to so radically transform the way we live and work. But, as rapid as this progress has been, it is fast becoming apparent that there is a limit to how long this exponential improvement will continue.

Around The Corner

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill - that has been listed as one of the items for discussion in the Monsoon Session of Parliament - will, if enacted be a significant first step in the journey to a functional privacy regime. But there is still a lot to be done including issuing regulations and establishing the Data Protection Board.

It’s now been over a decade that I’ve been waiting for a data protection law. Over that time, I have on numerous occasions (and with misplaced enthusiasm) assured colleagues around the world that a law was imminent. Each time, I’ve had to sheepishly eat my words when the then current draft was either re-written or withdrawn—to the point where this has become a standing joke in the international round-tables and conferences that I attend.

Sharp Lines

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Regulating the intersection of data protection and competition is hard. Dominant platforms can leverage user data to create monopolies, limit user choice and raise competition concerns. As India prepares its own data protection law, it should try and avoid regulatory overlaps and strike a balance between data protection and competition regulation.

Data protection is a cross-cutting legal regime. Since it applies to every entity that collects and processes personal data, its principles tend to superimpose themselves on top of other legislative frameworks—increasingly so, as more and more businesses go digital.

Neither Good Nor Bad

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We tend to think of technology as either “good” nor “bad” based on the outcomes it has. This is futile as in most instances any harms that may be caused by technology is on account of how it is used and by whom.

One of my favourite podcasts is ‘Radiolab’, a show that, by its own description, asks deep questions and uses investigative journalism to get answers. In an episode last year, it told the story of an artificial intelligence tool called MegaSyn that, though it had been developed to find a cure for disease, ended up being used in far more sinister ways.

Safety Innovations

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

New Technologies require regulators to think innovatively about safety. To find a way to encourage experimentation and yet not do so at the cost of human safety. This is a difficult line to draw but draw it we must.

On 20 June 2023, the Titan, a 22-foot experimental submersible made mostly of carbon-fibre and titanium, descended into the North Atlantic ocean with five people on board. The vessel had been developed by Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, to take wealthy tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic where it currently lies, around 4,000 metres below the surface of the ocean.

Musical Intelligence

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As artificial intelligence enters into the music industry, incumbents have already begun to resist the transformation it will inevitably bring. But change is inevitable and it is only those artists who are able to embrace it who will survive the transition.

One of the more viral music hits of this year was a song called “Heart on My Sleeve” that, in just about a week, managed to rack up half a million plays on Spotify and over 15 million views on YouTube. At that pace, it was well on track to become one of the most popular songs of the year, until, all of a sudden, it was unceremoniously taken down.

Fear of the Unknown

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Our instinctive reaction to new and revolutionary technology is often fear of consequences that we cannot predict. But if we can rein in our instincts and conquer our fears, maybe we can master of the technology.

In the late 19th century, much of the Western world was gripped by an electrifying rivalry between two of the greatest minds of the time. It came to be called the ‘War of the Currents,’ and pitted Thomas Edison, the world’s most prolific inventor, against his arch-nemesis, Nikola Tesla, a brilliant Croat polyglot who, ironically, became the recipient of the Edison Medal from American Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Truckin

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve embraced technology when it comes to urban transport leveraging ride hailing applications for personal transport as well as the delivery of packages of all sorts right to our doorstep. And yet, our national road transport system is surprisingly analog.

We are today just a click away from anything we want. Entire ecosystems have been built to get us the things we want in the shortest possible time and at the lowest cost. As a result, we have seen a rapid proliferation of warehouses, optimally located to ensure that fast-moving products reach their intended recipients as quickly as possible. As well as massive global sourcing enterprises that are constantly on the look-out for sellers who stock products as diverse as desk ornaments and the desks on which they sit.

Rule Makers

Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We have, for most of our existence as a nation, accepted the governance frameworks that have already been implemented elsewhere in the world. With digital public infrastructure India is, perhaps for the first time, making the rules. It is time for us to stop being rule-takers and assume the role of rule-makers.

When it was first introduced as one of the key priorities of our G20 presidency, even its most messianic votaries could not have imagined how warmly the world would embrace India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) approach. At the time, it was widely believed that DPI was unique to India, and that no other country without its particular combination of technical expertise and massive scale could ever hope to build efficient digital infrastructure that could perform the same way. Yet, in less than a year, the alacrity with which nations of the world have taken to this philosophy has been a joy to behold.

In-Built Bias

Wed, 24 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

When healthcare is powered by artificial intelligence and smart devices, we must ensure that all of humanity stands to benefit. We need open, transparent and customisable algorithms in our hardware.

The more we rely on medical devices for treatment, the greater the risk of small flaws in their underlying algorithms resulting in misdiagnosis, or worse. Most of these algorithms are trained on insufficiently representative patient data and thus incapable of addressing normal differences in physiological traits across a diverse sample of the patient population. As a result, the diagnoses they generate are sometimes ineffective and potentially harmful.

Ill-Advised Advisory

Wed, 17 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Regulators believe that the moment a new technology comes around they need to flex their regulatory muscle to wrestle it under control. In most instances they would be far better off waiting till they fully understand all the dimensions of the problem before acting. The new CERT-In advisory on generative AI is a case in point.

With all the frenetic activity in the field of generative AI, regulators around the world are facing pressure to do something about it. Many have jumped into the fray, issuing everything from blogposts and guidance to full-fledged policy frameworks on the issue.

What is the Digital Public Infrastructure Approach

Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) is a brand-new approach to the digitization of large-scale systems. It has the potential to revolutionize the way in which public services are delivered, since it is much more than a software or a technology infrastructure—it is a framework that encompasses technology, markets, and governance. It offers nation states unprecedented agency over their own digital journeys. It is designed to ensure the sovereignty of core public services, enabling capabilities that are critical to national growth. Crucially, it helps governments unlock the power of market innovation and entrepreneurship, creating competition and strengthening local and potentially global digital ecosystems.

Moderating Systems

Wed, 10 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Evelyn Douek suggests a “systems thinking” approach to content moderation. She says we need to focus on systemic solutions rather than individual errors. This is a different way from thinking about liability.

Content moderation is one of the more vexatious problems of modern data governance. Given the sheer volume of content generated online, it is virtually impossible to monitor everything that is said. And since users come from across the spectrum of humanity, they have a wide diversity of cultural, social and political beliefs. All this makes it extremely difficult to assess what might cause offence and to whom. Since content moderators have to strike a balance between removing illegal content and upholding users’ rights to freedom of speech, figuring out what to do is often a tightrope walk fraught with tension.

Digital Gender Inclusion

Wed, 03 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

India’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has significantly increased bank account ownership since 2014, with 56% of these accounts owned by women, reducing the gender gap. However, most women use these accounts only for benefit transfers, not for savings or financial products. To enhance women’s financial engagement, promoting digital payments and designing services tailored to women’s needs, considering their unique challenges, is essential. Proper training and fostering a supportive ecosystem are crucial for genuine financial inclusion.

AI's GDPR Problem

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Recent discussions on AI regulation often focus on privacy concerns, especially in relation to the GDPR. Large Language Models (LLMs) can conflict with GDPR principles like consent, data minimization, and retention. Conversational AI’s potential to store personal data raises further concerns. However, instead of constraining AI within outdated laws, regulatory frameworks should evolve to accommodate and enable new technologies, balancing innovation with privacy.

Over the past few weeks, I have been invited to more than my fair share of panel discussions on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), and in all of them, I have found that the conversation very quickly tends to veer towards privacy. Most panellists are worried that given the way in which this new technology has been built, it will not meet the stringent requirements of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And since the rest of the world sees GDPR as the gold standard for privacy regulation, they fear that this will detrimentally affect the deployment of this technology around the world.

Book Discussion on Invisible Empire by Pranay Lal

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At the Bangalore Literature Fest 2023, I had a discussion with Pranal Lal on his book The Invisible Empire and the world of viruses.

Fireside Chat and the Global ODR Forum 2023

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At the ODR Forum 2023, I sat down with Pramod Varma to discuss the future of dispute resolution in the increasingly digitised world we are moving into.

Pro-Innovation Regulation

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

While AI will transform society and make certain jobs obsolete, it will also create new opportunities. Different countries have proposed varied regulatory approaches, from the US’s hands-off stance to the EU’s detailed guidelines. The UK’s agile, principle-based approach, which adapts based on experience and avoids rigid legislation, is recommended for India to harness AI’s potential without stifling innovation.

Last week, amid all the buzz and hoopla around artificial intelligence (AI), an open letter authored by a few notable individuals threw a bucket of cold water on all the excitement. Apparently inspired by a letter from the Future of Life Institute, it raised fears that AI would threaten jobs in the country and hinted at the doom that would befall us if we did not immediately regulate it.

Future of Technology

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For India, AI represents a new opportunitiy to accelerate its development. We need to adopt a regulatory approach that will allows us to benefit from the technology while still safeguarding ourselves from the harm that it can cause.

I am fortunate to have been present on at least two occasions when Nandan Nilekani made speeches about the future direction of technology that turned out to be remarkably prescient. The first was in 2005, at the ITechLaw conference in Bangalore, where, well before any of this was obvious, he predicted that because of the falling costs of data storage and the rapid acceleration in availability of bandwidth, there would be a shift in products and services from the desktop to the cloud. At the time, a good two years before Apple launched its iPhone, we were chained to our desks, and the conveniences of our ‘always online’ lives today seemed like an impossible dream.

Designing Data Governance

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Data governance faces challenges in enforcement due to businesses seeking ways around regulations to maximise data usage. Traditional laws are often outpaced by evolving business practices. The “Privacy by Design” concept embeds privacy into technology design, but its success depends on businesses’ willingness to adopt it. India’s techno-legal approach, emphasising interoperability, federation, and protocol-based design in its digital public infrastructure, offers a model for embedding regulatory principles directly into technology, ensuring more effective data governance.

Containing AI

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Recent advancements in AI, including upgrades in large language models and image generation, have showcased immense potential. However, odd behaviors in these systems, like Bing’s alter ego “Sydney” and eerie image generations in Stable Diffusion, raise concerns about machine super-intelligence. Nick Bostrom’s warnings about unregulated AI development emphasize the need for industry guardrails to ensure safe AI evolution and prevent uncontrollable advancements.

It has been a great few weeks for Artificial Intelligence (AI). In rapid succession, several companies announced significant upgrades and new features in large language models (LLMs) and generative image AI. And much of the world has been entranced by the possibilities this presents.

An Explosion of DPI

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

India’s digital public infrastructure has transformed daily life, with UPI processing billions of transactions monthly. However, global innovations, like mPESA in Kenya and DCash in the Eastern Caribbean, highlight the worldwide growth of DPI. At a recent knowledge-sharing event, global participants recognized India’s leadership in DPI and sought guidance on its design and governance. India’s experience positions it to guide other nations in developing robust digital ecosystems.

In India, we experience on a daily basis the many manifestations of our digital public infrastructure in almost everything we do. We use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to pay anyone, anywhere—from high-end restaurants to street-side vendors selling tender coconut water. We store our credentials in the DigiLocker app on our phones, rarely carrying identity cards on our person because we know that every authority figure—from the traffic policeman to the CISF guard at the airport—is bound to accept our digital identity as proof that we are who we say we are. With applications like DigiYatra, we are experiencing previously impossible levels of convenience when we travel.

The Unified Ledger

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and the tokenization of private money deposits could revolutionize the financial system. Agustin Carstens suggests a unified digital ledger for both public and private digital money, enabling efficiencies like smart contracts and instant settlements. This approach could extend to tokenizing various assets, transforming governance by embedding compliance within transactions.

In an earlier article in this column, I dug into the premise behind Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in an attempt to try and understand how these new digital instruments align with the two-tiered banking system we have come to depend on for over 400 years. In the process I gained a new appreciation for the relationship between private money (the money in our bank accounts) and public money (issued by the Central Banks) and how the ability to redeem private money into Central Bank currency as well as to acquire Central Bank public money in times of stress is critical for the stability of the modern financial system.

Dis-Content

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In Gonzales vs. Google, YouTube’s recommendation algorithms are under scrutiny, potentially redefining Section 230’s protections. The decision could reshape online content moderation globally.

In 1995, when the World Wide Web was still in its infancy, the pioneers of that nascent industry were seen as no different from publishers. The websites they ran were treated like magazines to which writers could contribute articles. And just as magazine publishers could be sued for what their authors wrote, websites had to be accountable for what users posted.

Does AI Copy

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Generative AI has had a transformative impact on text and visual arts. While the AI’s ability to mimic artistic styles raises copyright concerns, does this constitutes “copying”? How will the definition of artistic talent evolve in the AI era?

Like everyone else, I have been thoroughly fascinated by the improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) we have witnessed over the past few months. Last year, I used GPT-3 to write one of the articles in this column, even if only to see if the content I generated using nothing more than instructions to an algorithm could get past the watchful gaze of editors. When ChatGPT was released late last year, this sort of technology suddenly became widely accessible through a conversational interface that anyone could use and ask for answers to just about any question—from writing songs in the style of an artist of their choice to creating functional software regardless of whether or not they have had any prior experience with coding.

Existential Angst

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

New technologies, like AI, provoke existential fears in various professions - from writers to musicians and artists. While AI threatens to replace human skills, including intellectual ones, these technologies will also create new opportunities and skill sets. It is premature to worry about human obsolescence.

In a recent article, economist and writer Tyler Cowen declared with refreshing candour that the days of writers like him were numbered. With artificial intelligence (AI) getting increasingly good at summarising content from the farthest reaches of the internet, he wondered aloud whether anyone who made a living writing opinion pieces would be needed any longer.

Your Face is Your Boarding Pass

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Digi Yatra, India’s new biometric air travel system, adequately addresses privacy concerns. It is designed to keep personal data on the user’s device and purge data from airport systems 24 hours post-flight. Despite my initial skepticism, the system is efficient and privacy-conscious.

I strongly believe that no matter how repugnant a technology might sound at first blush, I need to try it out myself before forming a firm opinion. When I don’t, I find that my implicit biases colour my judgment - to the point where I assume the worst before giving it a chance. What’s more, as a commentator on the impact that technology has on society, I can hardly express an opinion without having experienced what I am writing about first hand.

Alt Big Tech

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

There are concerns over India’s digital public infrastructure and the role of self-regulatory organizations like the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). In particular that these entities, lacking oversight, could become “Alt Big Tech,” potentially harming users and stifling innovation. While these organizations are privately operated, function under regulatory supervision and could represent a new model for governing modern techno-legal ecosystems.

While there is widespread support for India’s digital public infrastructure achievements, a small, articulate chorus of voices has begun to question certain aspects of the approach. Their concerns, for the most part, relate to the role played by the self-regulatory organisations at the heart of these ecosystems. In a recent paper, Smriti Parsheera, a well-regarded analyst of Indian tech policy, argued that these organisations have become “Alt Big Tech” and need to be regulated to ensure fairness and competition.

Momentous Change

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The transformative potential of OpenAI’s ChatGPT is like how Google revolutionised search. ChatGPT could disrupt the targeted advertising model that sustains most internet businesses by providing summarized information instead of directing users to specific websites. The technology’s potential to change the internet’s fundamental business model is emphasized.

As I sat down to write the first article of the year, I tried to figure out what the year holds for us. This year, I couldn’t help but feel that we are on the verge of momentous change.

Looking Back

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A reflection on the tech policy developments in India during 2022. While my initial predictions about data protection laws and tech sector reforms didn’t unfold as expected, there have been positive strides in India’s digital public infrastructure, like the UPI payment system and Account Aggregator ecosystem. India’s upcoming G20 presidency could further spotlight its techno-legal approach to regulation.

In my very first article of the year I predicted that 2022 would be a busy year for tech policy. I was basing my prediction on the progress that had been made so far on our draft privacy law - the fact that now that the Joint Parliamentary Committee had finally submitted its draft, it seemed inevitable that the bill was well on its way to becoming a law. I saw the immediate next steps as being crucial - the establishment of the Data Protection Authority, the creation of rules, regulations and codes of practice and the daunting task of orienting commercial practice around a new culture of compliance. Which is why I was sure that the year was going to get be busy.

Idea Factories

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There are two types of entrepreneurs: “Idea Factories,” who generate numerous ideas but struggle with execution, and “Factories for Ideas,” who excel at turning a single idea into a successful business. Recognizing whether an entrepreneur falls into one or the other of these types can help advice them appropriately - and ideally entrepreneurial teams should pair both types for optimal success.

Over the course of my career, I have come across entrepreneurs of all hues.

Truth and LLMs

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Education is evolving in the age of technology and AI. While modern education is moving away from rote learning to skills like critical thinking, students should also be trained to use AI as a research tool. However, the rise of AI-generated content poses challenges in distinguishing genuine research from fabricated material, necessitating the teaching of healthy skepticism and cross-referencing skills to students.

When I was in school, we were prohibited from using electronic aids during our exams. Even then, I couldn’t understand why we had to do sums in our heads when it was so much simpler to use an electronic calculator. But when I had the temerity to question my teachers, I was given a lecture about how the ability to multiply numbers in my head would stand me in good stead when I was older.

Sufficient Decentralisation

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We need to think about creating “sufficiently decentralized” social networks. While decentralization offers more control to users, it has drawbacks - such as non-unique usernames across the network. If we can use smart contracts to create a decentralized name registry we might be able to balance user control and functionality, and create a more user-empowered internet.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that the solution to our content moderation problem is federation. Rather than continuing to fight a losing battle to get centralised tech platforms to improve how they moderate online content, we should, I argued, push these decisions to the edge of the network. This way, servers can determine for themselves which other servers to connect to, while still letting their users stay connected to global conversations. Federation was how the internet was originally designed and was also how I believed modern communications could be made to function.

Data Breach

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

India’s new draft data protection law mandates that data fiduciaries must notify affected individuals and the Data Protection Board of a breach, but it lacks specifics as to timelines or remedial actions. I worry that over-reporting minor incidents could lead to public desensitization, and would have preferred a more balanced approach that only requires notification of only the most high-risk breaches, similar to the European GDPR.

Despite the many ways in which our privacy can be violated, we are, arguably, at our most vulnerable when the data we’ve entrusted to a service provider somehow makes it into the public domain. Small wonder that one of the questions I am almost always asked when I talk about our latest data protection law is whether and to what extent it protects us against a personal data breach.

Exceptionally Simple

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The new draft of India’s digital data protection bill is praised for its simplicity and relatability, although it has raised concerns for its lack of detail and government exemptions. The draft also misses key concepts like data portability and uses non-standard terminology.

Last Friday, the Union government released a new draft digital data protection bill, the latest instalment of what has, for the past few years, begun to feel like a never ending saga. As someone working on a data protection law for the country for over a decade, it sometimes feels like I have been running on a hamster wheel for a really long time. But as I read through the recent draft, I felt, for the first time, that there might finally be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Digital Personal Data Protection

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The latest draft of India’s Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, stands out for its simplicity and new concepts like “voluntary undertaking” and official recognition of “consent managers.” However, it omits features like data portability and the right to be forgotten. Critics argue the draft lacks safeguards and over-delegates legislative authority, particularly around the concept of “deemed consent.” But the principles-based approach it espouses could ensure agile and enduring data protection regulation.

Federated Social Media

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has reignited debates on content moderation and free speech. But today it is not content that is the challenge but context. We need to move from centralized platforms to federated, protocol-based networks, allowing user-controlled, context-sensitive conversations. This is a model already successful in India’s digital public infrastructure. digital public infrastructure content moderation context data governance.

The news this past week has been all about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and how things are changing in the organisation since he assumed the designation of “Chief Twit”. While much of the discussion has been around the staff layoffs, in the circles I inhabit, equal attention is focused on how his changes will affect the quality of speech on the platform.

Data Governance - The DPI Way

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

the-dpi-way/ categories: “articles” modified: 2026-01-06T12:37 writingStatus: published publication: Ex Machina created: 2023-11-17T08:39

As India prepares for its G20 presidency, the focus on its Digital Public Infrastructure gains momentum. India’s DPI, built on open, interoperable principles, offers a new approach to data governance that benefits both developing and developed economies. It aims for equitable data use, empowering individuals and enabling market innovation.

Is it just me, or is everybody suddenly talking about digital public infrastructure (DPI)? Over the past 6 months, I have been on more panels and asked to write more articles on this subject than I would have thought necessary—and yet, as the year draws to a close, the buzz, if anything, is only getting louder. DPI is the flavour of the month and it isn’t hard to surmise why.

Green Fuel

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Ethanol, a fuel that emits 44%–52% less greenhouse gas than petrol, is presented as a viable step towards sustainability for India, a major sugar producer like Brazil. By adopting flex-fuel technology and ethanol production techniques, India could significantly reduce CO2 emissions without immediate radical changes to its energy infrastructure.

In an earlier article in this column, I had pointed out that plants were the solar cells of the natural world:

Plants use photons from sunlight as sources of energy to create chemical bonds between molecules of carbon dioxide and water. This process, called photosynthesis, is how they create carbon-based stores of energy that they use to grow. When we burn plant matter, this energy gets released in the form of light and heat energy. Plants are, therefore, the batteries of the natural world, capturing energy from the sun and storing it in a stable form that can be transported from place to place and burnt to release the energy trapped within. When humans harnessed fire, they learned to generate energy at will. This was a turning point in our evolution, and arguably the one scientific discovery to which every subsequent technological advancement of the species can be traced. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was our ability to harness fire that set us firmly and irreversibly on the path to civilisation.

It's Getting Real

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

AI is being increasingly used in journalism and law. OpenAI’s GPT-3, can produce content nearly indistinguishable from human-written work. But we need to remember that AI is a tool, not a substitute for human creativity.'

In an earlier article I wondered whether a computer would ever be able to write an article that was so good that it would be difficult to tell it apart from a human-written article. That time might have already come.

New Electronic Records

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Information Technology Act, 2000 governs cyber incidents and data protection in India. A recent amendment permits certain negotiable instruments and real estate contracts to be executed digitally. Though narrow in scope, this change could significantly impact the financial and real estate sectors, fostering innovation and modernization.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), is a salad bowl of disaggregated regulatory objectives, uncomfortably arrayed cheek-by-jowl in the same statute. This is the law that deals with cyber incidents and under which the National Computer Emergency Response Team has been established as the nodal agency for incident response. It is also the statute that lists all the different cyber crimes one could fall foul of. In the absence of a comprehensive privacy law, this is also the font of data protection regulation in the country, given that the rules issued under Section 43A of the Act are the closest we have got, so far, to a privacy regulation. And when websites have to be blocked, content taken down or digital communication monitored, it is the provisions of this law that are invoked.

Asymmetry

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Data asymmetry allows those with access to large data sets to gain insights that can be used for various purposes, including manipulation. Solutions like India’s DEPA framework aim to reduce this asymmetry. However, challenges remain in knowledge and intelligence asymmetry, requiring democratisation of data science techniques and addressing biases in AI algorithms.

Anyone who possesses a large enough store of data can reasonably expect to glean powerful insights from it. These insights are more often than not used to enhance advertising revenues or ensure greater customer stickiness. In other instances, they’ve been subverted to alter our political preferences and manipulate us into taking decisions we otherwise may not have.

Poorly Defined

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Telecommunications has released a draft bill to replace the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, aiming to reimagine the regulation of the telecom sector in India. The draft includes provisions for the government’s exclusive privilege to provide telecommunication services. It also brings obligations from license agreements into the statute, requiring parliamentary approval for amendments. The draft has been criticized for its broad definition of “telecommunication services,” potentially affecting over-the-top (OTT) services, and for loosely defined terms that could create loopholes.

Privacy Impact Assessment

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Given the Indian government’s increased use of technology, concerns around personal privacy necessitate the conduct of privacy impact assessments and the implementation of appropriate safeguards, such as a government privacy office, to balance the benefits of the technology with the potential harms to privacy.

On 15 February 2021, the government made it mandatory for highway tolls to be paid through its FASTag system. After a few weeks of confusion, the country adapted to this new requirement. Vehicles of all description procured RFID stickers and affixed them on their windshields so that they could drive through FASTag lanes where tolls were automatically deducted from their electronic wallets.

Open Access

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In the 1600s, scientists collaborated more openly in physics but in secrecy in the field of alchemy. This is probably why physics has continued to this day while alchemy is a dead science. This is why we need open access in modern technology. Shared innovation fosters progress, while secrecy leads to stagnation.

In the early 1600s, Giovanni Batista Baliani, a Genoese mathematician and physicist, made an unusual observation. He noticed that mechanical pumps could draw water no higher than 34 feet up a hill. Giovani discussed this with fellow scientist Galileo Galilee, who said that this was because the “power of the vacuum” could only support water up to a certain height.

Rethinking Telecom Regulation

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The DOT is looking to revamp the Indian Telegraph Act to upgrade it to a modern law. If we had a blank slate to reimagine the law what would it look like. I suggest that we do away with the license regime and put all the regulations into the law. This way services providers just sign up a single document signifying that they are bound by the law and the regulations. Then we should simplify the entire system by simply dividing all telecom services into either carriage or access services and prescribing obligations in that manner. Lets make it technology neutral - especially when it comes to distinctions between voice and data.

India's Approach to Data Governance

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is a chapter of a book on the Korean and Indian approach to data governance. I co-wrote this chapter along with Shreya Ramann

Introduction

India has witnessed rapid digital growth in a short time span. This has resulted in technological advances, new governance regimes, and bespoke, India-only digital policies. Taken together, these changes have come to define the Indian model of data governance. In turn, this model aims, from an Indian perspective, to empower citizens.

Rethinking Patents

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The PM-EAC has recommended reforms to India’s patent system that primarily involved ramping up the work force (from about 800 to 2800 in a couple of years) and also introducing the utility system of patents as appropriate. I suggest we go a bit further and try and tweak the term of patent so that it is more appropriate for the invention being protected. So 20 years for pharma but no more than 5 for tech patents that in any event evolve to the next generation within that time.

The Language Barrier

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There are parallels between the myth of the Tower of Babel and the modern linguistic challenge of the internet. In this India has a unique need for translation technology, given its linguistic diversity. Bhashini may be the answer.

One of the best known origin myths about the source of languages is the story of the Tower of Babel. It goes something like this:

There was a time when everyone on Earth spoke the same language, and, united in this manner, decided to build a tower so tall it could reach the heavens. They made such rapid progress on the tower that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was said to have remarked, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”

Colour Me Purple

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Intellectual property boundaries are being streteched with companies claiming exclusive rights over specific colors and the extension of copyright terms. Its time for a re-evaluation of how intangible property is protected, given modern technologies and commercial realities.

Prince Rogers Nelson was arguably the finest musician of his generation. More widely known by just his first name, he was a singer-songwriter who was effortlessly proficient in a wider range of musical instruments than should, by rights have been possible. He died on 21 April 2016 and was mourned by all—from US President Barack Obama to the cast of Hamilton.

Ring Fencing

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There is a parallel between the use of barbed wire in the American prairies to establish property rights and the modern challenge of protecting intangible assets like intellectual property. Barbed wire allowed landowners to enforce title by fencing off land instead of branding ownership onto cattle. Decentralized technologies, such as blockchain, could transform the way intangible assets are protected, just like erecting fences around real estate, made it inherently resistant to trespass.

Space for the Private Sector

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There are many benefits that can be derived from space investments - including communication satellites, GPS technology, weather prediction, and various innovations. We need broad-based participation in the space sector, including private investments and to this end the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) is a positive step.

Last week, my timeline lit up with some of the most gorgeous photographs of space that I have ever seen. The first images from the James Webb telescope included stunning visuals of what the universe looked like soon after its birth and clear evidence that there was water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star.

A New Digital Coin

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We need to understand how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) fit into the modern 2-tiered banking system. While CBDCs offer potential benefits, such as banking the unbanked, do we even need a CBDC in the Indian context.

Global interest in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is on the rise. According to a report by the Bank for International Settlements, 80% of all Central Banks are investigating CBDCs and half have progressed past research to running pilots. In an article last year, I applauded this trend believing, at the time, that CBDCs represented the best of both worlds - the programmability of cryptocurrency and the stability of fiat currency.

Lawyer, Disrupt Thyself

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We need technological disruption in India’s legal system. I believe this would reqire us to maximise the potential of online dispute resolution (ODR). The upcoming GST Appellate Tribunal could be a unique opportunity to leverage ODR, transforming the legal profession through efficiency and accessibility.

I have often used this column to argue for using technology to make the legal profession more accessible and less mysterious. I have been so ardent about the need for reform, that some of my brethren have taken me aside and asked me what the hell I’m thinking. After all, legal complexity is the friction that we lawyers thrive on. If technology makes the law easier to understand and more accessible, what use will anyone have for lawyers?

Judge Made Laws

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Medical overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the guaranteed right to abortion since 1973. The ruling challenges decades of jurisprudence, threatens civil liberties, and impacts personal privacy. It also raises questions about the doctrine of stare decisis and the frailty of judge-made law.

Last week, the US Supreme Court issued its judgement in Dobbs v. Jackson Medical, overturning Roe v. Wade—a decision that has since 1973 guaranteed women’s right to abortion. Five conservative judges held that state legislators should be able to enact laws depending on whether they felt a woman’s decisional autonomy over her body was more important than her act of taking a “potential life".

The Cycles of Technology

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We believe that internet platforms are too dominant to fail. But this is not true when you think of the evolution of internet search and curation - suggesting that technology evolves in cycles. We may be on the cusp of a major cyclical transformation - in which case we may challenge the notion that Big Tech is too big to fail.

There is a widely held belief that internet platforms are too big to be dislodged from their current positions of dominance. Many believe we have no option but to apply the full force of competition regulation to protect customers from harm arising from their size and market power.

Appealing Moderation

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The draft amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021, will require intermediaries to align community standards with Indian law and create a Grievance Appellate Committee for “problematic content.” Critics view this as a tool of government censorship, while others see a need for balance between government control and private enterprise.

Last week the Government of India released a set of draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Once enacted, intermediaries will have to ensure that the community standards to which they hold their users answerable, comply with Indian law and its constitutional principles. This, the government clarified, has become necessary because a number of intermediaries have taken it upon themselves to act in violation of the rights of Indian citizens.

Pre-Legislative Consultation

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In 2014, India’s ministry of law and justice issued a policy on pre-legislative consultation, partially drawing on OECD recommendations. While most legislative proposals in India set aside time for public comments, the consultation often appears to be a formality. We need to redesign the process so that stakeholders can approach the process constructively - recognizing that policy-making is a compromise, and that both government and stakeholders must be open to differing viewpoints.

Unreasonable Enforcement

Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We need to have checks and balances in law enforcement, even though technological advancements will allow us to take shortcuts. Else we will not be able to prevent state overreach that affects the fundamental rights of citizens.

In the fall of 1991, that Agent William Elliott of the US Department of the Interior began to suspect that Danny Kyllo was growing marijuana in his home in Florence, Oregon. But mere suspicion was not going to get him very far. For Kyllo to be brought to justice they needed to physically search his house and no judge was going to issue a warrant on the basis of a hunch.

Problems and Solutions

Wed, 18 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As a reaction to the industrialization of agriculture, particularly the disproportionate land use for livestock, there is growing interest in plant-based meat alternatives. However, even these innovations may have unforeseen consequences, such as deforestation due to increased soy demand. Scientific advancements often solve problems while simultaneously creating new ones, challenging ethical norms and leading to continuous cycles of innovation and adaptation.

In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari made the somewhat controversial statement that human beings have been domesticated by wheat. While this might be hard for us to swallow, given our anthropocentric sense of self-importance, the argument itself is hard to dismiss. After all, it was not long after we learnt to farm wheat, that the entire species pretty much gave up the hunter-gatherer life it was physiologically suited to — for the much harder farmer’s life.

Data Breach Notifications

Tue, 10 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In India, the absence of comprehensive privacy law has led to over-reliance on CERT-In Rules, 2013, for data breach guidance. Recent directions by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has expanded mandatory reporting requirements, raising concerns about inundating CERT-In with trivial incidents and, as a result, hindering its ability to respond to serious breaches.

Towards the top of the list of the most challenging assignments I have had to undertake as a technology lawyer in India, is trying to explain to clients what they need to do in the event they suffer a data breach in India.

Context is King

Tue, 03 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There is a crisis of context in modern information consumption. While data is abundant, understanding its significance requires context. And context is scarce. This leads to misunderstandings and potnetial manipulation of content across a number of fields, including legal education and public communication.

Tyler Cowen, well-known economist and prolific writer, recently published a post called “Context is that which is scarce”. In it, he argued that our problem today is not with the information we consume but the fact that we lack the context to properly understand its significance. While the post does not, despite its intriguing title, offer much by way of context, the aphorism resonated strongly with me, articulating as it did what I view as a fundamental problem that ails public communications today.

Setting the Standard

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I support India’s new draft battery-swapping policy for electric vehicles, particularly since it promotes battery-as-a-service and emphasizes openness without being overly prescriptive. However, we should aspire to lead in developing standards that align with its market, leveraging its position as the world’s largest two-wheeler market, and its expertise in the EV sector, to assume global leadership in battery swapping standards.

As regular readers of this column can attest, I have, for a long time, been in favour of using battery swapping technology for electric vehicles. This, I believe, is especially important in the local transport and delivery segment (largely comprising taxis and 2- and 3-wheelers), given how badly these segments are impacted by the down-time that is unavoidable with even the fastest charging solutions. For these vehicles, swapping offers the best alternative, allowing drivers to top up their charge in roughly the same time it takes to fill a tank with petrol.

The Unfulfilled Promise

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

John Perry Barlow’s 1996 “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” argued for internet exceptionalism, where the online world would be free from real-world regulations. This belief shaped the liberal terms of service on websites, but with the internet’s growth and concentration in the hands of dominant platforms, the enforcement of these terms has led to serious global consequences. Barlow’s vision of a more humane online civilization may have been overly optimistic.

National Priorities

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

European negotiators have agreed on the Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at regulating dominant platforms in Europe. A key focus appears to be interoperability, particularly among messaging platforms. While it is intended to increase competition, mandatory interoperability may degrade privacy and create conflicts with global technology platforms’ policies.

On 24 March 2022, European negotiators announced that they had come to an agreement on the final terms of the Digital Markets Act. This new legislation, a key component of Europe’s new digital strategy, is designed to regulate “gatekeepers”, or platforms with a significant presence in Europe in terms of their revenues and European user base. These legislative measures make it clear that European regulators have got Big Tech companies firmly in their sights and want to break, at least to some extent, their control over the markets in which they operate.

Neutral Global Infrastructure

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Larry Fink, Chairman of BlackRock has based on the Western response to Russia and the rapid termination of business with the country, declared that globalization is over. These events highlight the existing global interdependencies and vulnerabilities, prompting calls for reevaluation and redesign of global financial infrastructure. And ultimately a shift towards self-reliance.

Last week, in a letter to his shareholders, Larry Fink, the Chairman of BlackRock, declared that globalisation was over. The manner in which the Western world came together to impose sanctions on Russia, coupled with the alacrity with which global businesses terminated decades-old business arrangements with the country virtually overnight, seemed to suggest that many of the assumptions upon which global trade has been based so far can no longer be counted upon to hold true anymore. Coming, as they have, fast on the heels of the pandemic that, itself, shone a light on many vulnerabilities, these events, he argued, “mark a turning point in the world order of geopolitics, macro-economic trends, and capital markets”.

Full Circle

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The metaverse has ignited widespread interest, with companies from various industries rushing to participate. But we have been here before with a similar virtual world called Second Life that eventually failed because of a lack of understanding of what it would take to foster virtual engagement. The success of the metaverse will depend on community.

Interest in the metaverse has reached fever pitch. Everyone seems to have a different angle on it — Microsoft’s enterprise metaverse focuses on digital twins and mixed reality, while Nvidia is looking to promote its Omniverse platform that is designed to help creators build this new immersive reality. But it was not until Facebook rebranded itself as Meta that it really sunk in to everyone that what was once a literary device from cyberpunk science-fiction was inevitably going to become a reality.

Virtually Mine

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There has been an evolution of ownership from physical objects to digital assets - despite the limitations of digital ownership. Flow, a new blockchain technology, and Cadence, a programming language, together may enable true ownership of digital assets, in a way that mirrors physical ownership.

Since our notion of ownership came to being in the context of physical objects, we defined it in terms of the control we can exert over objects we can touch and feel. When we extended these concepts to the intangible using intellectual property laws, we placed a value on ideas and concepts by allowing creators to exert authority over things that were not (nor had ever been) within their physical control. With that, the idea of ownership extended beyond actual possession—to legal control.

Global Data Stability

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We can have a new international approach to data governance that draws inspiration from the Bretton Woods Agreement. This would call for the creation of a global alliance with a commitment to data protection as well as a Data Stability Board to coordinate regulatory dialogue, aiming for harmonization and interoperability in global data governance.

In September of 1929, when the US stock market crashed, countries around the world scrambled to put in place measures to protect their economies from the economic repercussions that began to reverberate around the world. However, rather than stemming the rot, these protectionist measures - tariff barriers, currency devaluation and discriminatory trading blocs - created an unstable international environment that ended up making things much worse.

Different Strokes

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There are divergent approaches to data regulation across the US, China, and Europe. The US has a laissez-faire approach, China tends to be oriented towards state-centric control, and Europe is overtly rights-based. The growing schisms between these approaches are causing fragmentation, leading to a call for a common ground in global data governance.

One of the more interesting sections of the Justice Srikrishna Committee Report was its analysis of how different countries think when it comes to regulating data. Since the release of the report in 2018, the divergence between the US, European and Chinese approaches has, if anything, only increased. A recent paper titled ‘The Transnational Data Governance Problem’ looked into what this means for the future of global data governance.

Timing is Everything

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The success of innovation doesn’t correlate directly with statutory or structural impediments, but rather depends on timing and the right set of circumstances. Creating environments conducive to serendipitous connections across unconnected disciplines can foster innovation.

Given the amount of time I spend thinking about tech policy, I am often asked to provide suggestions of key regulatory changes that will improve the quality of innovation. The trouble with this sort of a request is that it presumes a straight- line correlation between innovation on one hand and statutory or structural impediments on the other. In my experience, there is no link whatsoever. In fact, I believe it is impossible to predict what it takes to turn an idea into a successful innovation.

Autocracy or Vetocracy

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Francis Fukuyama coined the term “vetocracy” to describe a gridlocked decision-making system where individuals can prevent policy implementation through vetoes. But while the physical world may suffer from excessive vetocracy, the digital sphere often leans towards autocracy. We need a balance between these two extremes and that is even more important in the context of India’s digital infrastructure. Vetocratic processes can be used to protect core principles, while maintaining flexibility to foster innovation.

Accessible Legal Systems

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian Supreme Court’s struggle to decipher a convoluted legal order highlights a broader issue of intentional incomprehensibility in legal language. This complexity often makes laws inaccessible to laypersons. We need plain language reforms, comprehensive lists of laws, explainers for every law, and measures to ease the compliance burdens if we are to make the legal systems more accessible and democratic.

Earlier this year, while considering an appeal from the decision of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, the judges of the Supreme Court found themselves uncharacteristically at a loss for words. The order that was being appealed, had been written in language so convoluted that even the most learned legal minds in the country, struggled to fathom what exactly it was saying. “How do we understand this judgment?” asked Justice KM Joseph, in frustration, “Is it in Latin?”. To which even the senior counsels present had to concede that the order was indecipherable. The order was returned to the High Court with a request that it be re-written.

Somebody's Watching Me

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone I know has a story about how their phone is spying on them. This usually has to do with how they started seeing ads in their news feed that pertain to something that they said or did offline that was somehow being picked up by our devices and used to target advertising at us. But if you think about it there is no way in which telephone companies can do that - or will even want to. It costs too much and is not worth the effort. What seems like personalised surveillance always has another explanation.

Funding Science

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Science funding requires patient capital. The NRF should follow 3 principles as it disburses its funding. (i) projects should get long term funding commitments that are protected against political change, (ii) they need operational autonomy so that researchers can follow their own paths and (iii) the NRF should no longer fund government laboratories but focus on finding academia.

On 28 June 1941, not long after the United States entered World War II, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order establishing the country’s Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). The organization was given unlimited access to funds and an extremely broad mandate to supervise the conduct of scientific research for military purposes. Its director, Vannevar Bush—a mathematician engineer and arguably also the most powerful man of science in his time—reported directly to the president.

Backfire

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Any attempt to change the beliefs of vaccine skeptics using facts is bound to fail. Thanks to the backfire effect they will take the facts presented to them and bend them to fit with their beliefs rather than allow new facts to convince them that their beliefs were wrong.

One of the unfortunate side effects of the current Omicron surge is that it has brought back, out of the woodwork, all the anti-vaxxers and science deniers I thought we had seen the last of. You all know who I am talking about. There is at least one in every family or classmate WhatsApp group.

Centralise or Federate

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The design of digital data sharing infrastructure must be federated. Where there is a need for data availability beyond the duration that data fiduciaries will retain it we need to build data storage alternatives that data principals can use. We should resist the temptation of getting the government to build these data stores as a public good because the role of the government is to govern - and it should not get into the business of data storage and data management. Instead we should take a market approach and encourage private data storage providers to offer federated, inter-operable solutions.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

An analysis of the JPCs draft of the data protection bill has some welcome changes - the amendments to children’s data and the introduction of Section 62 that allows complaints to be filed. It also has some misguided changes such as the introduction of NGOs in the definitions. It also has changes that will have a significant impact such as the amendments to Section 35 and 36 on exemptions to law enforcement. Finally it introduces some new concepts that are problematic such as the requirement that data protection officers in companies need to be senior officials and the inclusion of non-personal data within the ambit of the law.

Financing Models for Digital Ecosystems

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article was co-written with Prakhar Misra and Harshita Agrawal

Abstract

This paper explores various financing models for the digital ecosystem within the Indian setup. It uses the market/non-market failure distinction and applies it to different parts of the ecosystem, outlined in the Open Digital Ecosystems framework. It identifies which form of financing — public, private and philanthropic — is suitable for the relevant component of the digital world — data registries, exchanges, open stacks, marketplaces, co-creation platforms, and information access portals. Finally, it treats philanthropic financing as a special case of financing mechanisms available and analyses their pros and cons in the Indian digital ecosystem.

Smart Regulation

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

There is a growing recognition of the fact that we can use technology tools to make our regulations smarter. There are 2 categories of tools to do this. The first gives users more control over what can be done with their data by placing data in pods and only allowing them to be accessed in accordance with the privacy management protocols. The second unlocks data silos allowing data to move between them with the consent of the user. While these tools seem contradictory they operate at opposite ends of the data spectrum can can be combined to augment statutory frameworks.

Crypto Regulation

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Cryptocurrency regulation will have to address a number of issues. To address the fact that cryptocurrencies provide anonymity, regulations can ensure that crypto exchanges conduct customer verification checks and be trained on anti-money laundering. The exchanges themselves can be required to be registered in India to fall within the ambit of Indian law. To address taxation concerns, our laws can be amended to base the tax payable on the fair market value of cryptocurrency as on the date of payment or receipt. Any offers of cryptocurrency can be required to comply with disclosure requirements for investor protection. All this can be achieved by amending existing laws and does not need a new regulation.

Phages and Precision Medicine

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Bacteriophages target specific bacterial cells and destroy them leaving all other cells unharmed. These organisms have been used for phage therapy - a treatment for disease that involves administering the specific bacteriophage corresponding to a given bacterial infection in order to treat it. Now that the continuous use of broad spectrum antibiotics has resulted in superbugs with high levels of antibiotic resistance, phage therapy might be the precision medicine solution that we need. This will require us to overhaul our current thinking about pharmaceuticals and adopt more localised manufacture.

Predicting the Future

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The fictional science of psychohistory is predicated on the proposition that while human behaviour is erratic in isolation, when aggregated to population scale it becomes predictable. Today we use big data to predict customer behaviour and third wave economics uses real-time data to solve real world problems. In time this will allow us to understand the steps we need to take to shape desirable outcomes.

As a lifelong fan of science fiction, I was thrilled to learn that Apple TV+ was bringing Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation series to the small screen. I have to admit that my excitement was tinged with just a soupçon of trepidation, unsure as I was that anyone would be able to do justice to the vast multi-generational span of the storyline. But it was great that even an attempt was being made.

Privacy Self-Management

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When there were limited uses to which data could be put, it was easy to evaluate the harms that could result from providing consent. Things are much more complex today so data protection regulations have tried to improve the quality of consent. This has resulted in the transparency paradox. If we can adopt consent templates we can give users appropriate autonomy.

I ended last week’s article with a quote from Byrne Hobart that called the act of communication a controlled violation of privacy. I thought this was an unusual perspective on the nature of personal communication, but it wasn’t until further reflection that I realized that if it were indeed true, it must mean that all social interactions are an exercise in trying to control the inadvertent disclosure of our private thoughts and beliefs.

Calculated Communication

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Every evolution of communications technology from the printing press to the telegraph to telephones and eventually the internet has placed new and different stresses on personal privacy. As much as we welcome these technologies when launched, in time we realise the effect that they can have on personal privacy. The whole point of communicating is to violate your privacy in a controlled way. But if we do not have information about all the ways in which a given communication can affect your privacy you cannot really exercise effective control over it.

Should AI own IP

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The South African patent office has granted a patent to an artificial intelligence program for an invention it has made. India granted a copyright to an AI application along similar lines. It is not clear how an artificial intelligence can exercise the IP granted by prosecuting a breach or negotiating commercial arrangements for its license. All these actions will have to be taken by humans on behalf of the AI in which case what is the point in calling the algorithm an inventor.

Identity and Privacy

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Identity is a prerequisite for the provision of services and efficient identity systems are necessary to scale digital public infrastructure. We can build back trust in identity systems through encryption and tokenisation of identity information by using privacy preserving technologies like zero knowledge proofs so that we can still establish eligibility for a service without exposing identity information.

No sooner had the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission of the Indian government begun to issue digital Health IDs than I saw a flurry of articles on how this new scheme was yet another assault on our personal privacy. Many of the concerns raised were the same arguments that had featured prominently in an earlier challenge to Aadhaar. This included the apprehension that the new Health ID would result in our health data being aggregated into large, centralized databases, making this intimate information easily accessible to those who wanted to misuse it.

Opening Closed Spaces

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The reason why email is the most widely used messaging protocol is because it uses an open interoperable protocol that allows messages to be exchanged freely regardless of the underlying operating system. If we are to take advantage of the benefits of data we need to enable open interoperable protocols that will break down the silos of our digital infrastructure.

Even though email has been around since the dawn of the internet, it remains, to this day, one of its most widely used applications. Last year, the world’s estimated 4 billion people who have active email accounts exchanged over 300 billion email messages every day. Even though we often complain about having to deal with its ever-increasing volumes, email remains the single most widely used means of communication on the planet.

The Future of Title

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The cutting edge of innovation in NFTs is taking place in the gaming space. Most NFT based games use non-fungible tokens to attest the title of in-game digital assets. If we start to use the metaverse for more and more real world activities, we will need some way to assert title over digital assets. NFT’s could become the future of title in the metaverse.

A few months ago, I wrote an article for these pages that took a closer look at the NFT craze. I had noticed the staggering prices that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were commanding and that article was my attempt at wrapping my head around why anyone would pay so much for a symbol of a title that didn’t even confer on the purchaser any rights associated with ownership.

Unpacking the Retail Stack

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In order to extract greater efficiency out of existing systems we sometimes need to break the atomic units of those systems down into even smaller pieces so that we can re-imagine how they can be put back together. This is the sort of unbundling that we need to do of the retail stack in order to be able to build a digital retail infrastructure that can empower our small traders. This is the only way we can enable hyperlocal commerce at national scale.

The App Store Tax

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The courts in the US have upheld the App Store model arguing that it demonstrates pro-competitive features that outweigh concerns of monopolistic activity. All it does is prevent operators of these stores from putting in place measures that ensure that all in-app transactions be routed exclusively through the App Store so the fees can be deducted at source.

When the creators of Pac-Man thought of porting their blockbuster video game out of the arcade where it was born and into the fast-growing home video-game market, their first choice was to get it onto Nintendo’s Home Entertainment System (NES). Since this was the first time Nintendo (or, for that matter, any console manufacturer) was allowing another developer to distribute a game on its platform, no one had a clue of how to go about it.

A Technolegal Approach to Data Transfers

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A number of countries have realised that they need to extend their data protection frameworks through new measures that will unlock data silos in order to make it easier for data to flow from one entity to another with the permission of the data subject. However, if these measures are adopted solely through legislation they will fail. Technology businesses must be regulated through a mixture of law and technology - strong principle based laws and protocol based technology guardrails to ensure compliance.

Striking a Balance

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Policy-making requires an understanding of the reciprocal relationships inherent in regulation. Focusing on a policy outcome in a narrow area of specific intent will result in unintended consequences in reciprocally related areas. In these instances it is important to think about policy making as a dial. Tilting too much in one direction will cause harm elsewhere. It is about finding the right balance.

A photograph is considered to be well exposed if it has enough light to illuminate the important features in the frame without casting ugly shadows. In order to create an artistic image, photographers need to learn to control the mechanisms that allow light to enter the camera. They basically have two dials that they can play with—the size of the aperture through which light enters and the speed at which the shutter opens and closes to let light in. Skilful adjustment of both these dials can produce images that are way beyond the capabilities of plain vanilla point-and-shoot cameras.

The Dark Cloud over India's Micro-Entrepreneurs

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The proliferation of micro-entrepreneurs in India has been enabled by India’s radically unbundled e-commerce ecosystem. However, given the expansive wording of the new Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, the flourishing of this important ecosystem is threatened as the platforms enabling these entrepreneurs will have to comply with so many obligations as to make their operations commercially infeasible.

For me, one of the bright spots of the utterly miserable past year-and-a-half has been the spontaneous proliferation of home cooks in Bangalore. All of a sudden, almost out of nowhere, a wide variety of dining options have become available.

The Metaverse Opportunity

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The technology to create the metaverse is at the stage where it could well become a reality. However, unlike the internet that was created by patient capital, the metaverse will be created by big tech. We need to develop open standards and regulations so that we can ensure that there are no walled gardens in the metaverse. India has already built interoperable infrastructure to address essential aspects of the metaverse like payments. It has the opportunity to be a leader in its development.

To Forget or Not to Forget...

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

On the one hand the internet is so good at remembering things that we have to create legal frameworks to force it to forget. On the other hand, in those instances where we expect the internet to remember things in the same way we used to rely on libraries link-rot and content-drift has resulted in valuable information no longer being traceable.

In a recent interim decision, the Madras High Court ruled that the accused in a criminal case could have his name redacted from a judgement that acquitted him of all charges. The court pointed out that anyone can type his name into a search engine and be taken straight to the case in question, and, while he might have been acquitted of all criminal charges, the fact that he even figured in the case could harm his reputation—an unacceptable violation of privacy.

Encoding Privacy Principles

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The DEPA framework encodes most of the privacy principles that run through most privacy regulations into the framework of data transfers. However, while it solves the questions of notice, consent and purpose limitation, once the data is in the possession of the transferee, the traditional DEPA framework has no control over what is subsequently done with it. This means that it will no address issues of use restriction, data minimisation and retention limitation. If we can integrate into the traditional DEPA framework the concept of Confidential Clean Rooms we should be able to address these remaining privacy principles as well.

The Micropayment Alternative

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Advertising became the business model of the internet because we did not implement micropayments. However advertising has created perverse incentives and it is time we returned to the original idea of the founders of the World Wide Web and build micropayments solutions for the internet.

There was a time before search engines and social media when we had to actually type out URLs to navigate the internet. In those days, spelling mistakes would land you in little hypertext dead-ends - pages cryptically titled “404 Error: Page Not Found” that told you that even though you were connected to the correct server, there was no page there corresponding to what you had typed out. Standard response codes, like this, are part of the core design of the internet. A “401: Unauthorised” page says you need the right authentication to proceed while a “403: Forbidden” page indicates that access to that page has been disallowed.

The Skies are Free

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

By repealing the drones regulations it passed just 4 months previously the government has demonstrated that it is willing to listen to public feedback and promote a more business friendly regulatory framework. What is critical is for the new regulations to carefully define the airspace map for drone operations and to remove the penal consequences that the new framework has imposed.

A few weeks ago, I dedicated an entire article to the Unmanned Aircraft Regulations that India’s ministry of civil aviation had issued in March 2021. I was disappointed by how retrograde these regulations were and the unnecessarily onerous burden it placed on a fledgling industry:

Breaking the Rules

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The pandemic forced us into a natural experiment that has given us valuable insights about the natural world in the absence of humans. It also allowed us to experiment with changing various regulations to continue to operate in a lockdown. We should use the learnings from this natural experiment to figure out how to implement empirical policy-making by implementing regulatory sandboxes for our policy endeavours.

Marine researchers, have, for a while now, been studying the effects of noise on sea life. We know that the sound of outboard motors can have an effect on the feeding habits of fish, and, in some cases, even shift undersea migratory patterns. Whales that rapidly ascend in the water to flee the sound of sonar pulses have been known to develop embolisms. The sonorous thrum of heavy container vessels is now so pervasive that researchers fear entire species of sea creatures have been forced into silence.

The V2G Opportunity

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If we had built our grid based on renewable power generation we would have made battery storage a part of grid design. Now as we transition away from centralised to distributed power generation V2G solutions offer a useful alternatives that India, given its recent policy changes, is ideally suited to implement.

A general purpose technology (GPT) is a breakthrough so significant that it opens the doors for a number of other technological innovations. Fire was our earliest GPT. Once we learned how to harness it, we were able to cook food, keep ourselves warm in the winter and see in the dark. But by far the most transformative use of fire was as the source of energy that ended up powering all of modern civilisation. Once we learned to harness the energy released by fire in steam-powered machines, we were able to operate the ships, locomotives and factories that gave us the Industrial Revolution. This method of harnessing the power contained in fossil fuel was subsequently used to generate electricity - which become a GPT all of its own.

Patient Capital

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Breakthroughs in science require patient capital that must be provided by the government. Scientists need to be given a long rope and not be held to the standards of accountability to which we typically hold the government. They need to have bipartisan political support as they operate at time-scales beyond that which politicians normally function within. They need pipelines to market that will allow these ideas to be naturally commercialised.

Free the Skies

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The March 2021 Unmanned Aircraft Rules have imposed such a heavy compliance burden on drones that any hope of a drone renaissance has become vanishingly slim. Unless the government liberalises these restrictions it will have a chilling effect on the drone industry at a time when it should be having its iPhone moment.

Most of us think of drones in a purely recreational context. We see them as user-friendly gadgets with which amateurs can shoot Spielberg-esque aerial footage and which can be raced over dizzyingly-challenging courses using first-person-view headsets.

Networked Thought

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Most knowledge management systems are deliver on the expectations knowledge workers have of them. Tools for networked thought are ideal to develop the sorts of big picture thinking that needs to be part of a legal knowledge management system. The more you use these systems the more information they surface.

Knowledge sits at the very heart of the practice of law. Lawyers need to be acquainted with a wide variety of laws — what they contain and how they are actually implemented. But given how complex commercial interactions can be, the range of laws they could involve, and the unique requirements that individual clients bring to the table, lawyers need to have this sort of information at their fingertips so that they can provide clients with advice exactly when they need it.

Hybrid Work

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If the Future of Work is hybrid we will need to find a solution to the hybrid work paradox. We will need to find a way to allow everyone the flexibility to work from home when they want yet still be able to benefit from working collaboratively with their colleagues in the ways that we only know to make possible in office. This will call for rethinking meetings so that it works just as well with a mixture of in-person and dial in participants. We will need to re-think network security to account for people calling in from everywhere and not just from behind the office firewall.

Intermediaries Liable

Tue, 25 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Intermediary Guidelines 2021 just make things more confused. It will cover social media intermediaries on the basis of registered users and not active users which can be a big deal for many companies that have a relatively small active Indian user base. It will apply to services that provide messaging as just an ancillary service - and most digital platforms do that. Voluntary verification is also a strange requirement since it doesn’t ensure traceability because its not mandatory. Anyone who fails to comply even with the most minor requirements of the regulations will lose their intermediary liability protections.

The Rural Challenge

Tue, 18 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We need different protocols to deal with the pandemic in rural India. Instead of supplying oxygen we need to provide them with a supply of medicines and basic equipment they need. Since it is not feasible to get RTPCR tests done in a reasonable time frame we need to replace that with syndromic testing using oximeters and thermometers. And we need to leverage our decentralised healthcare networks.

It’s got to that point in the pandemic when we all know someone who has died or suffered greatly. Our messaging apps have, at one time or the other, been filled with pleas for help and with heart-wrenching stories of grief and frustration. We’ve all, individually and collectively, done our best to get beds, oxygen cylinders and medicines for friends and family, raise funds or even just maintain lists of verified sources of medicines, oxygen and hospital beds so that we can be helpful when the inevitable call comes.

A New Westphalia

Tue, 11 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The concept of a sovereign nation-state grew out of the Treaty of Westphalia that established the absolute authority of a sovereign power over its territory. Technology compresses distances and helped improve control over the far flung regions of nation-states. The internet compressed distances even more. This coupled with globalisation has challenged the concept of sovereignty. Nations have opposed this with data localisation laws and slowly big tech companies are agreeing to be bound by concepts of regional sovereignty.

The Vaccine Waiver

Tue, 04 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Given the urgency to vaccinate the world there is an urgent need to ramp up production of vaccines. All that is coming in the way of that is the intellectual property rights over vaccine recipes. What is required is a temporary vaccine waiver of intellectual property rights in order to encourage worldwide manufacture.

Last week Bill Gates got himself into a bit of a soup with a controversial comment. When asked, in an interview on Sky News, whether global intellectual property laws should be amended to allow the recipe to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines to be more widely distributed, he replied with a categoric “no”. The bottleneck, according to him was not intellectual property law but vaccine manufacturing capabilities. “There are only so many vaccine factories in the world” he said, “and people are very serious about the safety of vaccines”. Not unsurprisingly, these comments attracted considerable outrage, with commentators questioning this rather dismal view of the world.

Vaccinate

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We must combat vaccine hesitancy and get everyone vaccinated against covid-19. The only strategy to survive in India is to not get infected or to get fully vaccinated. The risk of blood clots is insignificant compared to the risk of getting the disease.

The last time I saw my dad was through the plexiglass porthole on the door of the ambulance that was taking him to hospital. For over a decade and a half, my father had stoically suffered various ailments, silently putting up with pain that our best medical science could only dull but not eliminate. When the pandemic descended on us, given his other medical conditions he was extra vigilant about masking and staying indoors. So it was a shock to us when he tested positive. Still, since he was just one dose short of complete vaccine immunity, we were hopeful that he’d come back home after no more than a short stint at the hospital.

Judicial Sector Reform

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In order to effect the judicial sector reforms that has been outlined in the Digital Courts Vision document, we need to unbundle the workflows in the judicial system and reduce them down to their constituent parts. We should then focus on the outcomes we are looking to achieve and re-assemble them using re-usable building blocks from existing stack infrastructure. Since much of the digitisation of the judicial sector can be expressed in terms of data flows we can achieve this by borrowing from the design of DEPA.

Non Fungible Tokens

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

NFTs are digital tokens that represent ownership in an underlying asset. At present they are a means by which to monetise digital art but eventually they will become the digital bridge that various commercial applications need for monetisation.

NFTs - or non-fungible tokens - are are all the rage today. Not only are ordinary folks spending inordinate sums buying them at dedicated marketplaces, even auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have begun to get in on the action. But despite this frothy excitement and widespread publicity, ask someone what an NFT is and chances are you will get a blank stare in response.

Overlap

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Issues of privacy and competition often overlap and we need a coordinated approach between regulators. That works in the US and EU where both the privacy and the competition regulators are active. In India, where we are yet to establish a privacy regulator, the competition commission will step in and regulate privacy aspects of data businesses from a competition perspective. There is a risk that privacy will be decided from a competition perspective. We need a data protection authority asap.

The Subscription Economy

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When measures being put in place to prevent third-party cookies from tracking individuals across the internet, companies that relied on these cookies to deliver personalised services had to find workarounds. Privacy activists are concerned that all this does is concentrate power in the hands of fewer gatekeepers. We can use this opportunity to move away from advertising as the business model for the internet and explore the subscription model.

Over the past year, two of the largest tech companies on the planet separately announced that they were going to be putting in place measures to prevent tracking technologies from uniquely identifying individuals as they move from site to site across the internet. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that both these announcements are aimed at loosening the stranglehold that third-party cookies have, for decades, had over the monetisation of the internet - as well as the many privacy harms that they have caused.

Radical Map Reforms

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The new map guidelines issued by the government has liberalised the map making in the country by doing away with the requirement for prior approvals and security clearances, relying instead on companies to self-certify their compliance. It has legalised the export of maps up to 1 meter resolution and have permitted Indian companies to use drones, street view and LiDAR technologies to create maps of higher resolution.

My first public policy assignment was to help the government rationalise its approach to geospatial data by attempting to converge the mapping activities of various disparate agencies into a single coherent national geospatial data policy. If this initiative doesn’t ring any bell, it’s because nothing really came of it—at least not until much later, and even then in a very different form. That said, as unproductive as this effort might have seemed at the time, I could hardly have asked for a better introduction to the complex world of Indian policymaking.

The CBDC Alternative

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Bitcoin should not be treated as a currency. But at the same time it should not be banned. Cryptocurrencies are permissionless systems that operate without intermediaries. As a result central banks cannot implement macro-economic measures in the event of a financial crisis. However, they are programable and can be incorporated into smart contracts offering a number of opportunities for digital financial inclusion. CBDCs are the best of both worlds combining the programability of bitcoin with the stability of fiat currency.

Age Gating

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Nowhere in the world have age verification obligations been imposed on online services like in India’s data protection law. Requiring users to prove their identity before the link they have clicked on can open will break the internet. Requiring children to get parental consent is not necessarily a good thing as parents often have a lesser understanding of privacy risk than their children who are digital natives. Instead we should hold platforms accountable for harms caused to children.

Traceability is Antithetical to Liberty

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian Intermediary Guidelines require messaging services to be able to identify the first originator of information. For those services that are end-to-end encrypted complying with this obligation will mean that they can no longer guarantee the anonymity of the parties. By asking message originators to be identified, it requires every single message to be tracked. In trying to identify a few criminals, it makes criminals of us all.

End-to-end encryption has featured frequently in this column. I have argued that the anonymity it guarantees is essential to our notions of privacy and individual liberty because it gives us the ability to hold personal views and express them freely in private. This freedom to speak without fear is central to the notion of privacy. In the words of Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul, it “is nothing but a form of dignity, which itself is a subset of liberty.”

The Big Tech + Media Bargain

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Australia’s media bargaining law that requires digital platforms to share revenues with Australian news companies only allows companies that deal in core news to enter into these revenue-share agreements. This excludes smaller publications and those that provide non-news content. Digital platforms decoupled content from distribution allowing small content providers to reach larger audiences. The Australian legislation will reverse this trend by supporting big new at the cost of independent content providers.

Competition in Telecoms

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Competition Commission of India has argued that since privacy is a non-price factor of competition, the competition regulator can regulate it. Privacy is a specialised area that should not be entrusted to a regulator that brings a purely economic lens its regulation.

Principle Based Regulations

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Regulation can never keep up with technology. What we need to do is develop principles-based regulation and allow regulators discretion in its implementation through effective post-facto enforcement. We should presume that regulatory actions have been taken in good faith unless proven otherwise and build transparency into our systems to ensure that regulators do not exceed their authority. Regulators should list all applicable regulations on their website and not attempt to enforce anything outside those regulations.

Electronic Evidence

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In India, electronic records can only be brought into evidence if accompanied by a certificate signed by a responsible person describing how it was produced and details of the computer involved in its production. Unless we remove these offline measures and replace them with digital certificates and other forms of electronic authentication, digital dispute resolution will be crippled.

In this column, I often describe the many ways in which India is digitizing itself. Thanks to our foundational infrastructure of identity and payments, we’ve built many innovative products, from digital lending solutions and public health platforms to location-based digital commerce solutions. Since all these technologies leverage one or the other of our foundational infrastructure elements and are built on open standards, they will easily achieve population scale and inherently resist the centralisation that inevitably leads to a few commercial entities gaining a disproportionate advantage.

Gatekeepers at the Edge

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We gave internet companies immunity for the content the flows through their pipes because communication infrastructure should have no opinion on the content. This, however does not solve the problem of offensive content - at best it passes the buck. We need a framework for determining what is acceptable speech. Governments should develop prohibited content dashboards so that internet companies can understand clearly what content is permissible and what is not.

Data is not the New Oil

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Data is not the new oil. It is infinite and unconstrained by geography. It is not destroyed when it is consumed and can be used simultaneously or repeatedly without degradation in quality. Countries should not try to regulate data like they regulate oil - by bringing it under their physical control. They should not only try and force big tech to share the datasets they have created, but also make the effort to learn what it takes to build datasets of our own—and then go about building them relevant to our context.

The Underbelly of Digital Lending

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Just as data can be used to democratise credit, these technologies are easily misused. Today digital lending companies prey on the poor by offering high interest loans to advertising targetted to popup when they are vulnerable. Regulating this will call for coordination between the telecom department (for anti-spam regulations) and MeITy to regulate (in-app advertising).

Over the weekend, I read a news report about the growing menace of fly-by-night digital lending companies. I have been coming across quite a few articles like this over the past few months, and this was yet another variation on a familiar theme. But as much as my instinct was to move on, something about the report made me pause.

Retrospective

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My reflections on my 2020 predictions about technological advancements. The pandemic emphasized technology’s central role in society, from remote working to vaccine development. New regulatory measures give hope for increased internet access and technology legislation in India, recognizing the need to adapt and engage with technology in new ways.

On 1 January 2020, I published my very first Ex Machina article of the year. Since it was also the beginning of a new decade, I made my own modest attempt at predicting the technological changes we could hope to expect in the coming years. I wrote about the promise of artificial intelligence, speech recognition and augmented reality, and how they would come together to let us speak to computers in novel ways. I argued that technology would transform our commute, eventually leading to a future of shared autonomous vehicles that would completely eliminate the need to own personal cars, etc. Finally, I spoke of personalized medicine and a future in which treatments could be calibrated to individual requirements, instead of being focused on discovering drugs that need to work on the entire human population.

Derived KYC

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The cost of KYC is an impediment to lending below a certain ticket size. If we can permit lenders to use derived KYC ensuring that it is only deployed in a digital context with all the required guardrails we will be able to radically reduce the cost of KYC opening up lending to the masses.

Of the many transformative changes that India has made over the past few years, the way it’s overhauled its financial infrastructure has been the most impressive. Digital payments, over the rails of the UPI infrastructure, has completely transformed the way in which commerce is carried out in the country. Over the past few months, UPI has consistently clocked in excess of 2 billion transactions per month, and is today being offered by almost every type of commercial service—digital as well as brick-and-mortar. The infrastructure proved particularly useful in the pandemic, by facilitating contactless payments and enabling direct benefit transfers to the remotest corners of the country.

The Great Unbundling of WiFi

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

India’s reliance on mobile data has exposed educational disparities during lockdown, with many students unable to access online learning. The newly approved Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) aims to radically alter data services by unbundling components, encouraging entrepreneurial opportunities, and potentially improving accessibility and quality of internet connectivity.

In many ways it is students who have suffered the most over the lockdown.

Once schools shut, education moved entirely online and only those children fortunate enough to have access to broadband internet have managed to keep up with their studies. Everyone else, thanks to the sub-optimal state of network connectivity in the country, has struggled to keep up, attending class with their video turned off, forced to use the tiny screen of a mobile device to see what the teach is presenting. Many have simply given up - left with no option but to forsake a year of education since they had no other way in which to connect.

Tools For Thought

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, as news of the incredibly realistic prose that GPT-3 was capable of generating reached me, my first thought was that I needed to figure out how to use this technology to churn out new Ex Machina articles. It wasn’t long before I realised that as a technology, it flattered to deceive. I would be far better served investing in consciously building a personal knowledge management system that help me synthesise all the various elements of knowledge I came across so that I was able to surface hidden connections.

Subscribing to Things

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The transition from owning things to subscribing to things is going to be hard until there is widespread market adoption and greater choice. Consumption is central to our economy and the only way we know to consume is by owning things. However once digital distribution becomes seamless we can subscribe to whatever we need to consume whenever we need them.

As regular readers of this column will attest, I have often argued in favour of shifting our thinking, in the digital context, away from ownership and towards use. But as much as I believe this is the direction we should be taking I will be the first to concede that the journey will not be easy.

The Bright Side of Life

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Despite our pessimistic focus on disasters and negative events, the world has significantly improved in areas like forced labor, women’s voting rights, literacy, and environmental protection. Even in tech policy and government handling of data privacy, progress is evident, though challenges remain.

There is a certain class of thinkers who make it their life’s work to pull us out of our pessimistic funk. They use data to demonstrate to us that as bleak as the world might feel, we are actually far better off today than we used to be not so long ago. I call them empirical optimists, and few better exemplify this approach to explaining our world than the late Hans Rosling.

Next Generation Map Technologies

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Outdated regulations and a lack of accurate mapping technology has cost India up to $14 billion per year in inefficient last-mile delivery. We need to modernise map regulations and embrace next-gen technologies like LIDAR and drones to boost our mobility industries and pave the way for autonomous vehicles.

Last week I came across an interesting article that discussed the economic consequences of low discoverability of localities in India. In it the authors compared the cost of last mile delivery in the US to that in India in an attempt to try and estimate the costs that businesses in India have to incur on account of the fact that we lack an accurate house-level addressing system. They found that in the US, last mile delivery was just 10% of the total cost. In India, on the other hand, despite the far lower cost of labour, last mile costs could be as high as 30%. They estimated that on account of the poor state of location services in India, the country as a whole stands to lose between $10 and $14 billion per year.

Contract as Code

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Lawrence Lessig was the first person to come up wtih the idea of regulating the Internet through code, suggesting that restrictions on digital platforms could be implemented through code. This approach, that could streamline complex, multi-party transactions, make them scalable and reduce the risk of non-performance is an idea whose time has come.

Over 20 years ago, Lawrence Lessig published a book called Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. At the time, it was one of the very few books that dealt with the challenge of regulating the internet arguing that we should not apply online, the rules that we use to regulate the offline world. It warned, presciently, that if the governments of the world did not shape the architecture of the Internet, tech companies would do so - to their exclusive benefit.

Bring Back Interoperability

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The concept of “creative destruction” and “adversarial interoperability” is particularly relevant in the context of modern technology. We need to allow new technologies to work with existing platforms without legal repercussions and foster interoperability.

A while back I wrote about John Philip Sousa, and his vocal opposition to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovation - recorded music. The point I made in that article was that Sousa’s angst with the phonograph was not an isolated incident. Those feelings re-surfaced time and again, every time the music industry faced some new disruption - when tapes replaced vinyl records; when MP3s replaced CDs - and we are feeling it now as streaming music is threatening to upend the industry yet again.

Moderating with Moderation

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Digital platforms face a number of challenges when it comes to content moderation, particularly when compared with traditional media’s editorial oversight. Most platforms adopt an “after-the-fact” approach to taking-down the content but they may be better off using algorithmic tools to dampen the virality of offensive content without infringing on free speech.

A couple of months ago, Spotify CEO Daniel Elk found himself in a difficult spot. No sooner had he signed on Joe Rogan, a wildly popular podcast host (allegedly for over $100 million), than his employees were up in arms over transphobic comments made on his show. There was no question that the episode in question was offensive to the LGBTQI community - but Elk was worried about the free speech implications of censoring this content despite its offensive nature.

Platform Regulation

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Different platforms require tailored regulations, and so operating systems and app stores should be regulated differently. Given the recent developments in India, where startups have challenged Google’s Play Store policy, there is a need for innovative thinking beyond traditional regulatory solutions.

Last week when I wrote about the brouhaha that had erupted in the aftermath of changes proposed to Google’s Play Store policy, I suggested that the laissez faire attitude of the Android Play Store was the reason why there is so much more malware in the Android app environment than on iOS. The changes being proposed, I argued, was an attempt to provide a higher level of assurance against malware as well as greater security against payment fraud than is currently available. While the openness and low touch management that characterise Google’s operating principles ensured its rapid proliferation, it was clear that unless greater control was exerted - at least over some parts of the ecosystem - we were going to continue to witness a steady erosion of trust.

The App Store Evolves

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Apple built the its iOS mobile ecosystem with strict hardware and software controls. Google built Android to be a more laissez faire system. Google is now exerting greater control over its Play Store to restore trust in the Android ecosystem.

Late last week, news broke of a virtual meeting that had been convened by doyens of the Indian startup ecosystem. Ordinarily, there wouldn’t have been anything remarkable about this meeting had it not become such a rallying call for the Indian developer community against the changes that Google was looking to implement to its Play Store policy. After years of forbearance, all apps downloaded from its Play Store were going to be required to route their revenues through that store and pay a 30% fee to Google as well.

The Cost of Orphan Drugs

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Karanveer Singh has Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). His family has discovered an experimental therapy that skips the missing exon in the DMD gene, allowing dystrophin production. Despite bureaucratic obstacles, the Central Licensing Authority permitted a clinical trial across India. If successful, the treatment, developed by the Dystrophy Annihilation Research Trust (DART), will be available at a fraction of the cost of Western alternatives, offering hope to thousands of families.

Earlier this year, I released an episode of my podcast that told the story of Karanveer Singh, a boy in Bangalore who was afflicted with a rare degenerative muscular disease. The episode describes the struggles of his family as they tried to find a way to mitigate the effects of a disease that had resulted in such severe muscular atrophy that Karan was already confined to a wheelchair. It was absolutely clear that if they did not do something about it fast, the disease would eventually claim his life.

Agile Tech Regulations

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If we are to take a comprehensive approach to tech sector regulation, we need to identify core regulatory objectives, establish regulatory principles, and involving experts in the regulatory process. We need agile governance that encourages multi-stakeholder participation, and allows for the creation of self-regulatory organizations (SROs). We should also establish technical standards organizations (TSOs) to continuously update and maintain digital public infrastructure standards, ensuring their relevance and effectiveness in the rapidly changing tech landscape.

Regulatory Sandboxes - A Cure for mHealth Pilotitis?

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is an article co-authored along with Satchit Balsari, Tarun Khanna and Abhishek Bhatia

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) and related digital health interventions in the past decade have not always scaled globally as anticipated earlier despite large investments by governments and philanthropic foundations. The implementation of digital health tools has suffered from 2 limitations: (1) the interventions commonly ignore the “law of amplification” that states that technology is most likely to succeed when it seeks to augment and not alter human behavior; and (2) end-user needs and clinical gaps are often poorly understood while designing solutions, contributing to a substantial decrease in usage, referred to as the “law of attrition” in eHealth. The COVID-19 pandemic has addressed the first of the 2 problems—technology solutions, such as telemedicine, that were struggling to find traction are now closely aligned with health-seeking behavior. The second problem (poorly designed solutions) persists, as demonstrated by a plethora of poorly designed epidemic prediction tools and digital contact-tracing apps, which were deployed at scale, around the world, with little validation. The pandemic has accelerated the Indian state’s desire to build the nation’s digital health ecosystem. We call for the inclusion of regulatory sandboxes, as successfully done in the fintech sector, to provide a real-world testing environment for mHealth solutions before deploying them at scale.

Consent to Port

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture framework allows data companies to collect consent for data portability just before transfer, simplifying privacy policies and focusing them on data collection and use. This unbundling of consent improves user control over personal data and enhances privacy.

A good part of my public writing on privacy, in the pages of this column and elsewhere, has centred around my discomfort with our over-reliance on consent as the primary means to protect our personal privacy. As useful as consent might have been in the early days of data protection, I believe it no longer performs that function effectively. Instead, it is used today as a get-out-of-jail-free card by technology companies who design their privacy policies to be as wide as possible so that when you accept their terms you will have agreed to language that gets them off the hook for much of what they do with your data.

We Don't Need Large Datasets

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Ford’s internal combustion engine car beat Edison’s EV to the market and as a result we are on our current fossil fuel dependent path. What if things were different. Few Shot Learning is an alternative to data guzzling artificial intelligence models that allows us to not be dependent on large datasets.

A hundred and thirty eight years ago, almost to the day today, Thomas Alva Edison switched on his coal fired power plant at his Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan and provided commercial electricity, for the first time in history, to 59 homes within a square mile distance of his power plant. Many see this event as the birth of the modern era, as it marks the origin of our dependence on electricity to the extent that it is integral to almost everything we take for granted today.

New Umbrella Entities are not a good idea

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Having multiple NPCI entities would be expensive and insecure. There is no benefit building multiple clearing and settlement centres. Its better to ensure that NPCI is neutral and redundant. We should build a separate standards setting body so that regulators can focus on running the system while the standards body can setting and maintain standards.

Last week, following on from a Policy Paper that it had issued in January 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a document setting out the framework it plans to adopt to authorise the establishment of new umbrella entities (NUEs) for retail payments. Once in place, these newly authorised entities will be able to operate their own clearing and settlement systems; establish new standards and technologies; and develop innovative new payment systems that enhance customer access, convenience and safety. All NUEs will have to be interoperable with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) - the umbrella entity that currently manages the entirety of retail payments - but, somewhat surprisingly, are also going to be allowed to set themselves up as for-profit entities and will, themselves, be able to participate in RBI’s payment and settlement systems.

The Beckn Protocol

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The internet has evolved from Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s original open vision to the current centralized platforms. It is important to promote decentralization and the Beckn protocol is an ambitious project aimed at creating an open, interoperable alternative to eCommerce platforms. Beckn’s success could revolutionize digital commerce, particularly in India, by allowing businesses to interact directly without platform intermediaries.

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, the internet was just a network of computers housed in universities and other academic institutions. But very early on he had a vision of how much more this network could become.

The mission to put health records at doctors fingertips

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The National Digital Health Mission’s Strategy Overview outlines India’s plan to become a Digital Health Nation, leveraging the nascent state of healthcare digitization to learn from other countries and avoid their mistakes. The strategy involves adapting India’s data portability architecture, using the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) for healthcare data sharing. It proposes a radically-federated design, storing healthcare data at its generation point and enabling rapid data transfer across the health system.

How to make online payments bustle with competition

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is considering reviving a proposal to limit transactions per entity in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem to prevent market dominance by a few players. Currently, three major players dominate the market, with two accounting for 77% of transactions. The NPCI aims to mitigate systemic risks and promote competition. There are alternative measures like leveling the playing field, regulating data control, and allowing more participants, rather than imposing transaction limits, to ensure a diverse and competitive UPI ecosystem.

Data localization could soon be the worldwide reality

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The European Court of Justice’s ruling on the US-EU Privacy Shield, impacts global data transfer practices. This decision, highlighting the importance of local laws in data protection, may lead to increased data localization, affecting countries like India and beyond, potentially restricting European data within Europe’s borders.

The world has always been divided in how it thinks about privacy. As the Justice Srikrishna Committee pointed out, there are basically three distinct approaches—the American, European and Chinese. The panel recommended that India should consider a fourth path, and the Personal Data Protection Bill that is currently being discussed by a joint parliamentary committee represents the alternative that it believed India should adopt.

India’s 21st century dilemma of global non-alignment

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

India will need to remain non-aligned as it did during the Cold War unless it ups its game and becomes the third force in the two way battle. In the new tech cold war between US and China, India cannot remain non-aligned.

Immediately following World War II, global politics was largely defined by events of the Cold War. The political ideologies of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America represented two ends of the spectrum of a decidedly bipolar world, and tussles between the two shaped much of the history of the second half of the 20th century.

Why community data trustees should also be regulated

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The first draft report of India’s Non-Personal Data Committee suggests democratizing data and introducing a new category of data principal - the community. However, absent guidelines for data trusts, the potential risks of politicization and favoritism within community action groups could result in potential misuse.

When it was first announced, the creation of a Non-Personal Data Committee caused considerable consternation. Never before had any country shown this level of interest in regulating data that wasn’t personally identifiable, and the implications on data-driven businesses were bound to be significant. In the course of the many months during which it worked, the Kris Gopalakrishnan committee stayed steadfastly out of the public gaze, surfacing only behind closed doors to meet with select stakeholders who were invited to make presentations on specific aspects of non-personal data and how it should be regulated. Which is probably why, when the report was finally made public last Sunday evening, it just materialised, silently and without flourish, on the MyGov website.

The untold story behind the evolution of privacy rights

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The article “The Right to Privacy” by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, published in 1890, has been influential in shaping modern privacy law. This foundational work has indirectly contributed to securing protections for the LGBTQ+ community, including influencing decisions that decriminalized homosexuality in the U.S. and India. But recent scholarship suggests that Warren’s motivation for writing the article may not have been what we thought it was.

Most people you ask will tell you that modern privacy law originated with an article called The Right to Privacy written by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis and published in the Harvard Law Review. It has been called the “most influential law review article of all time" and has affected the development of privacy law around the world. Roscoe Pound went so far as to remark that it did “nothing less than add a chapter to our law".

An education model that best suits the realities we face

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The pandemic’s shift to online education highlights social inequities, as not all students have equal internet access. Asynchronous learning, unlike the current synchronous virtual classrooms, offers a solution by allowing students to learn at their own pace and access materials offline, potentially making education more inclusive and adaptable to individual needs.

Of the many consequences of the pandemic-induced lockdown, one of the most visible to anyone with children is its impact on education. Schools and universities have been forced to shut down their campuses and scramble to move their teaching online. For most of them, this has meant finding ways to re-create the physical classroom by getting teachers and students to interact with each other through video conferencing tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Algorithmic collusion is a possibility to watch out for

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In 2011, a biology book was listed on Amazon for $1.7 million, eventually reaching $23 million due to two sellers’ algorithms reacting to each other’s pricing. This incident underscores the challenges and potential regulatory issues as businesses increasingly rely on algorithms. It has gained attention in legal contexts, including Indian courts, where cases challenge the legality of pricing algorithms used by ride-hailing companies.

In April 2011, Michael Eisen, a biologist at the University of California in Berkeley noticed that Peter Lawrence’s classic on development biology, The Making of a Fly, was selling on Amazon for $1.7 million. The book was, at the time, out of print and being offered by just two sellers, but even this scarcity could hardly account for the astronomical price. After all, this was a dry, academic book about the drosophila fly. Over the course of the next week, Eisen watched as the price kept rising, till it reached a price of $23 million for a brand new copy on Amazon.

Immunity passports might be inevitable as we go along

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As countries grapple with COVID-19’s community spread phase, the focus has shifted to frequent testing. It is time to consider the potential use of health and immunity passports. These passports could become essential for travel and social activities, but at the same time give rise to a greater risk of deepening social divides and creating new forms of privilege.

In the first phase of the covid-19 pandemic, most countries tried to starve the disease of the oxygen it needed to spread by implementing lockdowns and aggressively tracking down everyone who an infected person might have come in contact with, to limit its further spread. While that strategy seems to have worked in some countries like New Zealand, it hasn’t been effective everywhere.

A Golden Opportunity for Judicial Reform

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Covid forced courts to adapt to remote working. And they did remarkably well considering the extent to which court processes rely on physical interactions. We need to use this opportunity to radically re-imagine dispute resolution. We can move to written advocacy, use artificial intelligence to make better decisions about litigation strategy - such as the chance of success of an appeal.

I have written about the urgent need to radically transform the Indian judicial system on more than one occasion. It is evident, even to the casual observer, that many of the ills that plague the delivery of justice in this country can be easily eliminated with the judicious use of technology. And yet, precious little has been done by way of reform.

Online Dispute Resolution

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We need to radically reimaginine India’s justice delivery system by leveraging digital technology. We should propose written advocacy into the dispute resolution workflow and rely on data-driven reports to inform litigation strategies. How much we can transform is only limited by our courage.

I have, on more than one occasion, written about the urgent need to radically transform the Indian judicial system. It is evident, even to the casual observer, that many of the ills that plague the delivery of justice in this country can be easily eliminated with the judicious use of technology. And yet precious little has been done by way of reform.

Shield online platforms for content moderation to work

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I believe the Indian government should introduce Good Samaritan protections in its new Intermediary Guidelines, prosecuting those who negligently allow violative content on their platforms. There is a need for a balanced approach that encourages responsible moderation without stifling free speech.

Last week, President Donald Trump publicly reacted to the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, with a tweet that ended with the words “… when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Shortly thereafter, Twitter, for the first time in its history, decided to hide the Presidential tweet behind a warning label that said that his message glorified violence. This decision did not go down well with the Oval Office. Twitter had already fact-checked the President’s allegations of voter fraud through mail-in ballots and it seemed as if Twitter was purposely denying the President of the United States his right to free speech.

An opportunity lost for an internet we could all rely on

Wed, 27 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In times of uncertainty - such as during a pandemic, conspiracy theories abound. This gives lie to the notion that free speech ensures that truth will prevail. Since the internet lacks bi-directional links and user-editable pages, its design contributes to misinformation spread, unlike Wikipedia’s more reliable, interconnected model.

There is no better environment for conspiracy theories to flourish than a global pandemic. At times of uncertainty, when it is unclear when or how we will get out of the predicament we find ourselves in, the painful reality of a long and punishing recovery can be hard to accept. At such times, the distance between scepticism and paranoid cynicism shortens, and for those who traverse that path, convenient theories that align with preconceived notions can be so comforting as to override any evidence to the contrary.

How the covid pandemic could reshape life in our cities

Wed, 20 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Cities are dense hubs of economic activity. However when they come up against an epidemic like COVID-19, it prompts rethinking urban design, emphasizing remote work, local markets, and reduced physical contact, while considering the impact on migrant populations and urban efficiency.

Cities are and have always been the economic and social engines of the national economy. They are incredibly efficient hubs of economic activity, offering unique mechanisms for supercharging innovation. They maximize specialization by relying on their large populations to both produce and consume the multitude of special services they offer. By design, they are dependent on highly specialized individual production, super-efficient supply chains, and a high degree of mutual interdependence to achieve the economic prosperity that they generate. The efficiency of a city is a function of its density. The denser the urban agglomeration, the more efficient is its use of resources, as its services can be delivered to a larger number of people over a shorter period of time.

Aarogya Setu and the value of syndromic surveillance

Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The 2001 anthrax attacks led to the development of syndromic surveillance, a method for early disease detection using aggregated data. This technique, exemplified by India’s Aarogya Setu app during COVID-19, analyzes symptom data and location history to predict and manage outbreaks, balancing public health benefits with privacy concerns.

In the weeks following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the US, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several media offices and legislators in that country. The 2001 anthrax attacks, as they came to be called, killed five people and infected 17 others. But perhaps the most significant long-term consequence of these attacks was the creation of a system for early detection of the spread of a deadly disease that has since come to be used more widely in the context of infectious diseases.

A Delicious Irony

Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Why did it take so long for India to develop into the technology powerhouse that it is today? What were the decisions that we took along the way that sent us down the path we finally followed? And how has all this influenced the way in which technology has changed Indian society? This episode discussing the history of Indian science and technology, features Jahnavi Phalkey, science historian and filmmaker and Arun Sukumar, lawyer and PhD student at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Tech-enabled oversight could put innovation at threat

Wed, 06 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

When Mario Costeja Gonzales filed a complaint against Google in Spain, it lead to the creation of the “right to be forgotten.” Technology’s perfect memory challenges traditional legal concepts like bankruptcy law, which relies on human forgetfulness. We need to worry about technology-enhanced regulation, as it could stifle innovation and flexibility in business. We may need a new right to be forgotten in the context of regulation.

Mario Costeja Gonzales was born in the 1950s under Spain’s Franco dictatorship. Which is probably why he grew up to become a lawyer and spent most of his life fighting for causes like freedom of expression. In 1998, Costeja was having financial difficulties and had to put a property he owned up for auction. The Spanish ministry of labour and social affairs ordered that the details of the sale be published in Spanish newspapers to attract more bidders. Eventually, the property was sold, and Costeja went on with the rest of his life.

The Jio-Facebook deal and our need for a privacy law

Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook’s acquisition of a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms has led to the integration of WhatsApp with JioMart, Reliance’s grocery platform. The collaboration’s scope and implementation remain unclear, but concerns arise regarding the impact on privacy - especially in the absence of a data protection law in India.

The news that Facebook was going to acquire a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms set the cat among the pigeons. In his video announcing the investment, Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani said that one of the benefits of the deal was going to be the integration of WhatsApp with JioMart—Reliance’s newly launched grocery platform. In the days following the announcement, this new WhatsApp-powered service has rolled out a limited pilot in some parts of Mumbai, even in the midst of the nationwide lockdown.

Platforms for Society

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Ex Machina, Pramod Varma, Chief Architect of Aadhaar, sits down for a wide ranging interview that covers everything from his early life to his motivations for getting involved in Aadhaar. We also discuss how the various elements of India Stack came to be and what it means for inclusion and the future of the country.

Mobility datasets could help India exit the lockdown

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

During India’s fifth week of lockdown, measures have slowed COVID-19’s spread, despite testing and reporting concerns. A staggered lifting of restrictions is planned, balancing disease control with economic needs. Utilizing mobility data can guide reopening strategies, but privacy concerns must be addressed, especially in less dense areas.

As India moves into the fifth week of its lockdown, it appears that we have managed to slow down the spread of the disease somewhat. Despite allegations that we are not doing enough testing and that deaths are being under-reported, the extraordinary measures that the country took to keep people from moving about has resulted in a lower number of fatalities than would otherwise have been the case.

The need to strengthen India’s internet infrastructure

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Covid-19 lockdowns have brought about some irreversible changes, including the shift towards remote work, reduced reliance on commercial real estate, a decline in air travel, and changes in mass entertainment. In order to facilitate these transformations we need more accommodating internet regulations.

There is no doubt that the enforced planetary lockdown in response to covid-19 will have a severe impact on the global economy. That said, a number of reports have, with cautious optimism, argued that as bad as the fall might be, the recovery will be swift. I am not an economist and I have little to contribute to that debate, but what is becoming increasingly clear to me is that no matter how quickly or how well we recover from this crisis, much of what we know, and are currently accustomed to, will change irreversibly.

The Sharing Solution

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Very early on at the dawn of India’s tech boom, we gave the world its first shareable handheld computation device. But despite its promise, the Simputer never made it big. Today, India has the opportunity to change the world yet again in its own unique way, this time in the arena of urban mobility. But in order to do that we will need to fundamentally change the way we think about commuting.

The privacy features that are built into Aarogya Setu

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian government’s Aarogya Setu app aims to slow the spread of COVID-19 by tracking and testing those who have come into contact with infected individuals. Despite concerns over personal privacy, the app incorporates privacy protections such as dissociating personal data, retaining data on the device by default, and strict data retention policies.

The biggest challenge in dealing with covid-19 is that infected people are contagious long before they are visibly symptomatic. This means that by the time you know for sure that you are ill, you would have already infected a number of people. These people, in turn, would have infected others, and so on in an outward ripple. If we can quickly track and test everyone who an infected patient came in contact with and isolate them before they transmit the disease, we have a chance to slow its spread.

The corona crisis must not make us shut the world out

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of global supply chains and our over-reliance on just-in-time delivery models. While some may argue for more insular approaches and increased governmental control, the free movement of data and international collaboration has enabled rapid responses, such as genome sequencing and 3D printing of medical equipment. The crisis highlights the potential for global collaboration to impact health outcomes positively.

We frequently attribute our current levels of global prosperity to the interconnectedness of the modern economy. Much has been written about the power of global supply chains and the emergent order that keeps our economy chugging along without active intervention. Leonard Read, in his seminal essay I, Pencil, evocatively described the complex, international inter-dependencies that go into manufacturing something as mundane as a lead pencil. Russ Roberts’ poem, It’s A Wonderful Loaf laid bare the inner workings of the modern market economy, pointing out how all the activities that go into getting food onto our table take place emergently without a “Czar of Bread" to orchestrate it behind the scene.

The Incurable Disease

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the second episode of the Ex Machina podcast, we discuss rare diseases . There are certain rare diseases that have for a long time been thought to be incurable. Today, radical new therapies are being developed, largely on an experimental basis in laboratories in the developed world. This episode tells the story of one Indian family’s heroic effort to find the cure for an incurable disease, racing against time to try and save their son’s life.

Liberties yielded in this crisis could set a new normal

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Post-9/11 and 26/11 attacks, security measures at US airports and Indian hotels became stringent, normalizing privacy sacrifices for safety. The COVID-19 crisis demands similar privacy compromises for health surveillance, potentially resetting our privacy expectations permanently, but we must resist normalizing this intrusion post-crisis.

Before 11 September 2001, security was virtually non-existent at airports in the US. I remember how friends could accompany you almost upto the boarding gate for a domestic flight and wave you goodbye as you got on the plane. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, all this changed. Almost overnight, airports were locked down so that only passengers were allowed past security checkpoints. Today, nearly two decades later, we follow the same security procedures—taking our shoes and belts off as we approach metal detectors, and removing our laptops from our bags before passing them through scanners.

What the top court’s order means for virtual currencies

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Supreme Court of India ruled that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has the authority to regulate virtual currencies but found its decision to ban regulated entities from providing services to virtual currency exchanges disproportionate. The ruling clears the way for RBI to issue specific regulations on cryptocurrencies, likely more stringent than those in other countries, recognizing the potential stronger adverse effects on India’s developing economy.

Nearly two years ago, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prohibited banks and all the other entities that it regulated from providing services to anyone who deals with or settles virtual currencies. At the time, I wrote in this column that this step was not only deeply misguided, it was wholly unwarranted.

Platform technologies could deliver a vaccine quickly

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Developing vaccines is expensive, risky, and time-consuming due to stringent approval processes and logistical challenges. Platform technologies for vaccines, which can be adapted quickly for different pathogens, offer a promising solution. However, current legal regimes are not equipped to evaluate these platforms, and regulators must gain experience with them to accelerate approvals.

Coronaviruses are a family of pathogens that cause respiratory illness. They transmit rapidly and frequently evolve into new variants not previously identified in humans. While at least four strains cause very mild infections every year with symptoms and outcomes no different from those of the common cold, there have been several dangerous variants. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, better known as SARS-CoV, killed 774 people in 2003, and the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, MERS-CoV, has a mortality rate of 35%.

The trade-off between privacy and content traceability

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The use of end-to-end encryption is essential for privacy but also poses challenges, as it can be misused for criminal activities, such as the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Imagery (CSAI). The paper presented at the Web Conference 2019 highlights the exponential growth in CSAI, correlating it with technological advancements. The dilemma lies in finding a balance between protecting civil liberties through encryption and preventing its exploitation for criminal purposes.

The Centre could yet ride to the telecom sector’s rescue

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In 1998, Indian private telecom companies faced bankruptcy due to a crippling fixed-fee license model. The government’s 1999 policy shift to a revenue-sharing model saved the sector. Now, with a Supreme Court ruling on unpaid license fees, the sector faces crisis again, requiring government intervention.

In 1998, the Indian telecom sector was on its last legs. The experiment of allowing private companies into the telecom sector, which had previously been the exclusive preserve of the government, had come at a cost that was proving too great for them to bear. Though they had made tremendous investments in rolling out brand new mobile telecom networks in the country, they were finding it hard to recover their costs. On top of that, they were each required—under the terms of their agreement with the government—to pay a crippling licence fee, which, given their constrained means, was proving to be unsustainable. They were staring down the barrel of bankruptcy.

Let’s update the notion of ownership to the digital age

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Technology enables us to use things we do not own but unless laws change from regulating based on ownership to regulating based on access despite everything our technology has made possible, innovation will continue to be stifled by legislation.

I remember my parents saving up to buy us the World Book of Knowledge, a physical compendium of global knowledge that was slightly more affordable at the time than the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This was our own private gateway to the world of information that we could otherwise only access by spending hours in a library. I remember having a shelf-full of books that was the envy of my classmates—so much so that entrepreneurial little me set up a little lending library to supplement my pocket money. And when I started working and could afford it, I remember putting together a small but eclectic collection of long-playing (LP) records and compact discs (CDs) that was my pride and joy.

Prepare for a world of quantum haves and have-nots

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Google’s recent achievement of “quantum supremacy” has highlighted the urgency of commercializing quantum computing. Once viable, it will render current encryption methods obsolete, as quantum computers could easily defeat even the highest encryption. India must invest in quantum computing research and development to remain technologically relevant and independent in the future.

More than two years ago, the department of science and technology launched the Quantum-Enabled Science and Technology (QuEST) programme with an aim to develop technical capacity within the country to build quantum computers and communications systems comparable with the best in the world. The first phase of the project was to build the infrastructure and acquire human resources to develop physical and computation structures for improving precision in quantum measurement. The eventual goal is to build quantum computers domestically.

Justice Srikrishna on Privacy

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the first episode of the Ex Machina podcast I sit down with Justice Srikrishna for a wide ranging discussion on the many issues that he has been involved in - from the Mumbai riots to financial sector reform. But for the most part the interview focuses on data privacy and his critical role in shaping India’s law.

Lessons on internet governance from the concert hall

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Treaty of Versailles, known for ending WWI, also standardized musical tuning in Article 282, reflecting the challenges of standardization in music. This mirrors today’s need for an international internet treaty to balance local law enforcement and global human rights standards.

The Treaty of Versailles brought an end to World War I, requiring Germany to disarm, make territorial concessions and accept responsibility for the losses it had caused by paying reparations to the tune of 132 billion marks. Not many people know that among the many obligations that the treaty imposed, hidden all the way down in Article 282, was a provision that required signatory nations to agree to the pitch at which musical instruments in an orchestra needed to be tuned. Why an international document designed primarily to bring post-war Germany to its knees included something as innocuous as the tuning of musical instruments offers a glimpse into the strange history of a concert pitch and the challenges of standardisation in the music industry.

We must act to stop the future from turning dystopian

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

While dystopian science fiction is increasingly becoming true given the growing stratification of society, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, technology has greatly exacerbated these differences. As we build our digital public infrastructure we need to redesign these technologies to ensure equitable access and benefits.

One of the recurring tropes in science fiction is the radical stratification of societies of the future. In Time, an Andrew Niccol movie starring Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake, tells the story of a society where everyone has just one more year to live after the age of 25. As a result, the world has stratified itself into the poor, on one hand, who are forced to trade the time they have left to eke out a living, and the extremely wealthy on the other, who can afford to buy time from the poor, achieving virtual immortality and consequently growing wealthier. In The Hunger Games, the affluent live in Panem, a bohemian, sybaritic society whose members spend their time extravagantly accessorizing their look while watching the ultimate life-or-death reality TV contest. All the while, the poor live in abject squalor in The Districts, the sole purpose of their existence being to supply Panem with everything it needs.

We need greater clarity on internet freedom in India

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Supreme Court of India’s recent judgment on internet shutdowns was initially seen as a strong denouncement, but closer examination reveals it’s not an outright condemnation. While emphasizing that shutdowns must be reasonable and proportionate, the court did not elevate internet access to a fundamental right, nor did it provide a clear ruling on the constitutionality of internet shutdowns.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court of India issued a judgement that, according to initial reports, was a strong denouncement of internet shutdowns in general and offered immediate relief to the situation in Kashmir. Several internet policy groups I am a part of immediately declared victory, and faith in the judiciary, at least in some measure, seemed to have been restored. However, upon closer reading, it appears the judgement is not the stinging indictment of internet shutdowns it seemed at first glance.

How Britain got ahead of us in economic development

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

By substituting wood with coal England to achieve a far higher energy utilization and lower the cost of manufacture of iron and steel, generating large amounts of ferrous products and bringing into the production process a level of industrialization that India could not. Since cotton was a valuable trade commodity, effort was invested into producing textiles, resulting in the discovery of new means of production that launched the Industrial Revolution. This resulted in a loss of demand for various other goods whose continued development would have increased the pace of technological innovation in India. It translated into the destruction of educational institutions that generated knowledge and reduced the patronage for scientific and technical inquiry.

The future is here. It is just not evenly distributed yet

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Technological advancements can have a transformative impact. This includes deep neural networks, augmented reality, autonomous transportation, and personalized medicine. I predicts a future where technology will become more intuitive, education will be revolutionized, personal vehicle ownership may decline, and medicine will become highly individualized, though regulators may lag behind these changes.

The steady, exponential doubling of Moore’s law has made many technologies indistinguishable from magic. These changes will accelerate into the new decade and transform society as we know it. Today, we can converse with our computers. Image recognition can identify us even if we’ve grown a beard or changed our hairstyle. Deep neural networks can spot trends in large datasets that are invisible to us, offering radical new breakthroughs in theoretical science, medicine and autonomous transport. The dramatic reduction in the cost of sequencing the genome has already given us a different understanding of the causes of diseases and how they might be treated.

The rise of TikTok and regulatory eyebrows in the US

Wed, 25 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TikTok’s rapid growth has led to scrutiny and opposition from the West, particularly the US, over concerns related to content moderation and data privacy. The US government’s anxiety over not being able to directly regulate TikTok’s data collection may lead to new regulations, potentially influencing how other governments approach the issue.

TikTok has taken the world by storm. The viral app that allows users to post short videos, usually lip-syncing to a soundtrack with hilarious results, was, according to various sources, among the world’s five most-downloaded non-game apps of 2019. It is estimated that TikTok has around 625 million monthly active users (MAUs) globally, which seems to be a small number compared to Facebook’s 2.45 billion MAUs but represents a year-on-year growth of 85%. However, despite all this success, or perhaps because of it, TikTok has begun to face rising opposition from the West, in particular, the US.

The value of scepticism in the age of deep-fake videos

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With the rise of hyper-realistic deepfakes, discerning truth becomes harder. We need to learn to be more skeptical of the content we receive and constantly question its authenticity. Its not hard to do as we have done this before.

Last week, when trouble erupted in the North-East, someone in my friends’ circle sent our group a video that showed the police opening fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters—instantly felling two of them in cold blood. As the video played on, the policemen casually marched towards the dispersing protesters, talking loudly with callous indifference about what they had done, while the fallen bodies were picked up on stretchers and moved out of the way as if they were extras in a movie scene.

Not All It Could Be

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There were doubts as to whether Aadhaar would work because of India’s patchy infrastructure. It eventually went on to provide identity to many, but faced challenges like enrolment errors and biometric recognition issues. Because it was mandatory linked to various services, the Supreme Court moved to restrict private sector access - significantly constraining its ability to function as a tool of transformation.

When it was first announced, it seemed too ambitious to succeed. In a country where the infrastructure was patchy and largely non-existent, no one thought a digital project of its magnitude had any hope of taking off. Which is why, at the beginning, none but a paranoid few, really thought about the implications it would have at scale. But then, as more people began to enrol themselves into the system, we began to see what Aadhaar really had to offer. It gave people an identity — sometimes for the very first time — allowing those unremembered and unrecognized, access to a world they were previously denied.

We must guard against the casual disregard of science

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Trofim Lysenko’s misguided agricultural practices led to famines in the Soviet Union and China, killing millions. This is no different from the modern-day denial of climate science. We need to learn from the past and try not to ignore scientific evidence for political or economic reasons. Else we risk devastating global consequences.

In the 1930s, Trofim Lysenko was officially put in charge of agriculture in the Soviet Union, allowing him to implement a radically Marxist view of biology, one of his own invention. Lysenko believed that plants and animals are shaped by their environment alone and that all that was needed to remake them into whatever one wanted was to place them in an appropriate setting with the right sort of stimuli. He rubbished Western notions of genetics, denying that genes even existed. He called geneticists “fly lovers and people haters" in a sarcastic reference to their experiments with fruit flies.

The trouble with using DNA matches to nab criminals

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The arrest of the Golden State Killer, a serial criminal, was made possible through advances in DNA technology and commercial forensic genealogy. While effective in solving crimes, the use of public genetic information raises serious privacy concerns, potentially harming innocent relatives and uncovering unwanted private information.

From 1974 to 1986, residents of California were terrorized by the Golden State Killer, a serial criminal who committed 13 murders, 50 rapes and more than 100 burglaries in the state. Law enforcement agencies struggled to identify the perpetrator and were not even sure that all these crimes had been committed by the same person. He was called the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker, depending on where and what crime he had committed. In 1981, after a brutal double murder in Goleta, there was a hiatus in his criminal activities until 1986, when he raped and murdered Janelle Lisa Cruz at her home in Irvine. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

A blueprint for an effective data protection authority

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

India’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) must adopt technology to manage the high volume of privacy violation complaints and data-breach notifications. The DPA needs experts in technology, law, and privacy to balance privacy protection with technological innovation, requiring members beyond the traditional pool of bureaucrats and retired judges.

The announcement last week of the items of legislative business for the winter session of Parliament caused a mild furore in some of the policy circles that I inhabit. Twenty-fifth on the list of new bills scheduled for “introduction, consideration and passing" was the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, and many took this to mean that we would finally get to see the draft of India’s privacy law that the government has been working on. This excitement is a bit premature given the Union cabinet is yet to approve the draft. However, what seems clear is that we have moved into the endgame. Once the draft has been green-lighted by the cabinet, the bill would be placed before Parliament and, in due course, become law.

Why our attempt to escape online outrage might fail

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A mass exodus from Twitter to Mastodon in India occurred last week, driven by dissatisfaction with the platform. The migration was sparked by the suspension of lawyer Sanjay Hegde’s Twitter account and users are seeking a more respectful environment for debate on Mastodon.

Last week in India, there was a mass exodus from Twitter. Everyone left to join Mastodon, a federated social media platform whose single biggest attraction is that it’s still moderated by humans. While the immediate reason for the migration was the suspension of lawyer Sanjay Hegde’s Twitter account, for most users on my timeline, this was just the latest in a series of unfortunate incidents that had diminished their Twitter experience. They had grown tired of what the platform (being facetiously referred to as the “birdsite") had become, filled as it is with hate and intolerance. They yearned for a simpler, less offensive environment where debate and healthy discourse is still preferred over meaningless outrage. Mastodon, at least for now, seems to be it.

Why it’s not okay to compromise privacy for security

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The WhatsApp hack involving NSO has highlighted the urgent need for a digital surveillance framework in India. While law enforcement agencies demand access to encrypted messages, the incident demonstrates the risks of creating backdoors in communication platforms. Preserving civil liberties and maintaining robust security should be prioritized over short-term safety measures.

Last week, when information about the WhatsApp hack broke, news channels were falling over themselves to try and make sense of what it really meant. I found myself on TV (ironically patched into the live broadcast through a WhatsApp video call) being vigorously cajoled by my fellow panellist to draw conclusions far bigger than the available facts seemed to warrant. The big question that everyone seemed to want an answer to was who exactly it was who had engaged NSO, the Israeli company at the centre of the controversy, to target the couple of dozen Indian lawyers, activists and journalists at whom the attack was aimed. Since NSO claims to only license its services to national governments, the unstated inference was that the Indian government was snooping on its own citizens.

The case for meat options that taste like the real thing

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There is a significant environmental impact to livestock production. It accounts for 40% of global agricultural output and has significant greenhouse gas emissions. To meet global warming targets, a drastic dietary shift is needed. We need to explore meat substitutes like Impossible Foods’ products, that are a promising and nearly indistinguishable alternative to traditional meat.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), rapid increases in the demand for foods derived from animals has led to an unprecedented increase in livestock production. Livestock accounts for about 40% of the global value of agricultural output today and supports the livelihoods and food security of almost 1.3 billion people on the planet. The total volume of land set apart for grazing and for the cultivation of crops dedicated to feeding livestock represents almost 80% of all land under agricultural cultivation today.

Store data efficiently to get insights for justice reforms

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian judicial system is in dire need of reform, with cases piling up and delays becoming a norm. While some digital information exists, the system remains largely analog, lacking crucial metrics and insights. Agami, an organization supporting legal innovation, is working to build a repository for legal data sets, aiming to develop a cloud storage system for collecting, storing, and updating legal data. This project is seen as a first step towards using data to understand and address the inefficiencies in the Indian legal system.

We may need a whole new approach to data protection

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There is a tension between data collectors and data subjects regarding ownership and value of their data. WHile traditional ownership concepts have not really succeeded when it comes to data regulation, contained within the idea of either collector-centric or subject-centric data trusts we might find an alternative approach to data governance.

Data is all around us in everything we do and in every object we use. In the information age, there is no person or object that does not generate data and, since we are all connected, there is nothing to stop each of us from accessing it. If there is no limit to the amount of data that exists and no additional cost to the creation of each unit of new data, it stands to reason that the value of this data should be zero. The reality, however, is quite different. Data is one of the most valuable resources of the modern economy, and, among the many debates it has sparked, is the question of who actually owns it and is entitled to claim its value.

Agility should characterize the future of governance

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Agile governance, essential for managing rapid technological change and global scale of new technologies, involves systems thinking and design thinking for policy-making. It emphasizes multi-stakeholder participation, regulatory sandboxes for controlled experimentation, and data sharing for efficient regulation. India, with its digital public infrastructure, is well-positioned to lead in this agile governance approach.

Policy-making has historically been a deliberate, measured process involving the creation of explicit rules that are enforced through the power of sanction and implemented through defined command structures. However, this approach is proving increasingly useless in the modern context.

Adaptive legal advice for shape-shifting businesses

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Lawyers often struggle to advise innovative tech businesses due to their risk-averse, backward-looking training. They focus on legal risks, ignoring potential upsides. Modern businesses need lawyers who assess risks realistically, understand regulatory reactions, and advise based on future legal landscapes. Legal education needs a paradigm shift towards solution-focused, forward-thinking training.

Most lawyers find it really hard to advise innovative technology-driven businesses. The fact of the matter is that ever since law school, we’ve been trained to look for problems in the issues that our clients present us with, examining them through the lens of existing laws and testing them against relevant precedents with the sole purpose of uncovering all the different legal and regulatory risks that could affect the business we are advising. As a result, we tend to focus almost exclusively on the downsides, trying to find out all the ways in which our clients might be seen to have overstepped legal boundaries so that we can point out everything that could go wrong with them. This sort of risk-averse, backward-looking approach to innovation isn’t particularly helpful to young startups looking for validation, but it’s how we’ve been trained to provide legal advice.

Forensic DNA technology and the miasma of distrust

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

British colonial India significantly advanced forensic science, driven by a narrative of native deceit. Techniques like graphology and serological analysis were developed as judicial reliance on forensics grew, due to distrust in native testimonies. This legacy persists in India’s criminal justice system, often prioritizing technology over fundamental rights, as seen in recent DNA data bank legislation.

Modern forensic science owes more than we realize to technologies developed by the British colonial government in India. Graphology (handwriting analysis) scaled impressive heights in the hands of the Hardless family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), even as the use of these techniques was on the wane in English courts. The serological analysis of bloodstains found at crime scenes was practically invented in British India; so much so that the first office of the imperial serologist was established by the colonial government in Calcutta.

It’s better to use incentives than diktats to develop AI

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The argument that data localization will boost India’s AI competence is flawed. Simply storing data in-country doesn’t translate to AI development, as data structures are company-specific and insights are often non-transferable. Instead, focusing on building AI infrastructure, incentivizing researchers, and encouraging homegrown AI development with existing data is more effective for fostering AI prowess.

One of the arguments frequently trotted out in favour of data localization is that it will help us improve our national competence in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The government seems to believe that by keeping data in-country, we will finally have the training data that our data scientists require to give us the edge we desperately need in AI.

End-to-end encryption must be retained at all cost

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Stripping away anonymity entirely from social media platforms will never ever be useful. Just because a few have taken advantage of online anonymity for nefarious purposes does not mean that everyone else should be denied the many benefits that technology platforms provide.

In Book II of Plato’s The Republic, a question is posed to Socrates about the Ring of Gyges, a mythical device that renders the wearer invisible. He is asked whether it’s possible for anyone who has this ring to resist the temptation of killing, robbing, raping or generally breaking the law when all he has to do is just put it on and then freely commit all those crimes without the risk of being detected. Inherent in the question is the presumption that the reason we obey laws is the fear of being caught and that if we find a way to be perfectly anonymous, nothing will stop us from violating laws that no-one can know we have broken.

The competition law and data advantage conundrum

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Competition law is challenged by the unique dynamics of internet platforms, which prioritize growth and customer lock-in over short-term profits. These platforms often operate at a scale that traditional businesses can’t match, and their data advantage allows them to tailor services precisely. While this leads to better user experiences, it also results in a winner-takes-all dynamic, limiting customer choice. Regulating these platforms is complex, as breaking them up might deny consumers the benefits they offer, and traditional competition remedies may not be applicable to the digital market.

The popularity and regulation of competitive eSports

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The victory of 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha" Giersdorf in the Fortnite World Cup highlights the global rise of eSports, with millions of viewers and substantial prize money. Despite its popularity, the industry lacks a central governing body, leading to challenges such as player protection, betting, match-fixing, and potential substance abuse. There is a need for appropriate regulation, especially as eSports is poised to flourish in India.

When you think of an elite athlete, the image least likely to leap into your mind is that of a teenager playing video games in front of a computer. And yet, when 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha" Giersdorf won the finals of the Fortnite World Cup at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York, it was hard to think of what we were witnessing as anything other than a massive global sporting event.

A new framework for consent to ensure data privacy

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The effectiveness of consent in protecting privacy is diminishing in our data-rich world. A study found that companies’ privacy policies and actual data sharing practices are inconsistent, with technically sophisticated firms sharing less data. A digital consent framework, exemplified by India’s account aggregator system, could enhance privacy protection by allowing dynamic, informed consent, but it currently lacks features to fully ensure privacy, such as purpose limitation and data deletion upon consent revocation. Enhancements to this framework could restore faith in consent as a tool for privacy protection.

We need a cost-benefit analysis of data localization

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

India’s draft Personal Data Protection Bill has sparked debate over data localization, with the government insisting on processing personal data within the country. Unlike other nations that restrict data transfers, India has made localization the default, an approach seen as out of character with its global trade stance.

The furore over data localization reached fever pitch last week when an article in The Economic Times claimed that provisions in the draft Personal Data Protection Bill were being watered down to apply only to critical personal data. No sooner had it been published than the ministry of electronics and information technology issued a press release, stating that the news report was speculative. It clarified that all aspects of the draft bill were still under consultation and, when finalized, the draft law will address India’s data sovereignty concerns and provide a framework to boost innovation.

UPI is world-class and it’s time to take it international

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra can enable efficient cross-border transfers, India’s existing UPI system, with its robust digital payments infrastructure, already meets the country’s needs and can be internationalized without relying on blockchain technologies.

Cryptocurrencies are peer-to-peer electronic cash systems that are governed not by the authority of a central bank, but by digital code. Transactions are only added to the common distributed ledger if they can be validated in accordance with the rules stipulated by the code, ensuring that digital currency once spent cannot be re-spent. For everyone who uses the same blockchain, its distributed ledger becomes a common source of truth that allows them to carry out peer-to-peer transactions without the need for validation by a central entity.

A three-point plan to improve tech policy formulation

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Regulating technology is challenging due to its rapid evolution, leading to a disjointed patchwork of rules. Governments often react to technology’s harmful impacts rather than proactively anticipating them. Regulatory entrepreneurship, where changing laws is part of the business strategy, complicates this further. To improve technology regulation, the government should focus on real objectives, adopt principle-based laws, and seek expertise from various fields. This approach would ensure more effective, adaptable, and comprehensive technology regulation.

Creative destruction and the global music industry

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Every new technology has disrupted the one before it and there is always opposition to the creative destruction technology fosters. In the long run disruption is necessary and we need to favor innovation to constantly reinvigorate the economy.

In 1877, Thomas Alva Edison was working on a machine that could record the spoken word. He believed this could be a valuable tool for business, perhaps even replacing the imperfect profession of stenography. The device he ultimately came up with had a diaphragm that captured sound and converted it into indentations transcribed onto a cylinder wrapped in tin foil so that when a needle passed over those grooves again, the recorded sound was played back.

A rethink of the grid design to shape our energy future

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The economics of modern electricity requires huge power plants to be established at remote locations and be connected to our homes and offices through the grid, a network of transmission and distribution lines that ensures availability of electricity in our power sockets whenever we need it. This centralized model doesn’t contemplate storing energy. Instead it calls for 24/7 power generation, varying the amount of energy generated only by season and time of day based on the anticipated load.

The perilous consequences of automation dependency

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009 highlights the dangers of over-reliance on automation in aviation. When the autopilot disengaged due to a malfunction, the pilots’ lack of manual flying experience led to a fatal error. But counter-intuitively - rather than relying on human intervention we need to trust more in machines and building better systems to automate them.

At 11.13pm on 31 May 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic, killing all 228 souls on board. When it went down, it was being piloted by three highly trained pilots—two of them had been trained from scratch by Air France, flying Airbuses all their professional lives, and a captain who had over 11,000 flight hours under his belt. The plane they were flying was the Airbus 330, the most advanced commercial aircraft in the world at the time, equipped with fly-by-wire technology that was so good that in the 15 years since it was first introduced in 1994, there hadn’t been a single crash. And yet, for reasons that flight crash investigators still find hard to explain, the plane went down, done in by the very pilot errors that automation was supposed to protect against.

Rising machine intelligence is a double-edged sword

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Many prominent figures have warned of the dangers of uncontrolled AI development. Even so, skeptics argue that humans will always control machines. Modern AI lacks the ability to reason with “what if?” questions and counterfactual imagination, which are essential for human-like intelligence. Though machines are not yet at this level, I would urge caution in advancing AI towards these capabilities.

There has been a growing chorus of alarm about the existential threat of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Eminent personalities such as Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk have come out in public to state that if we continue to blindly develop machine intelligence, we will inevitably get to a point where machine intelligence will exceed that of humans. Nick Bostrom, the Swedish philosopher whose book Alexandria/Link Pages/superintelligence is all about the hidden dangers of AI, believes that once machines are capable of designing other machines like them, it will result in an explosion of intelligence that will push us past the point of no return, after which, try as we might, we will be unable to avoid a Terminator future.

The government and Big Tech need to meet halfway

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

India’s new IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has warned social media companies against misuse of their platforms for terrorism and communalism. The statement highlights a divisive debate between national security advocates and privacy proponents. A balanced approach is needed, with tech companies and law enforcement agencies moderating their stances to ensure both security and privacy.

In one of his first statements while taking office as the new IT minister of the country, Ravi Shankar Prasad warned social media companies that they would do well to take steps to prevent their platforms from being misused for acts of terrorism and communalism. He acknowledged the need to protect freedom of speech and expression, but was at pains to point out that all freedoms come with reasonable restrictions. While the message was clear, the statement, in its apparent dichotomy, represents one of the most divisive issues in the internet policy space today.

The needle in the digital haystack

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Given the extensive surveillance efforts by the US and UK governments, as revealed by Edward Snowden, there has been a push for data localization laws in various countries. We need to question the effectiveness of mass data collection in preventing terrorism since the growing volume of data may render such efforts futile. At the same time we need to question the approach of data localization, given the difficulty in extracting actionable intelligence from vast amounts of information.

Why shutting down the internet is no longer an option

Wed, 29 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The McKinsey Digital India Report highlights India’s rapid digitization. With 560 million internet subscribers, it is second only to China. Despite a low Country Digital Adoption Index score of 32, India is digitizing faster than most countries - all the more reason for there to be fewer internet shutdowns.

The Digital India Report released by McKinsey Global Institute in March contains a wealth of interesting data about how digital technologies have impacted the Indian economy. With 560 million internet subscribers, India has more digital consumers than any other country in the world, save China. Despite these high numbers, India’s Country Digital Adoption Index score is a lowly 32, making it the bottom-ranked country among the 17 mature and emerging markets that McKinsey analysed (South Korea tops the list at 75 and China is at 47). That said, India is digitizing faster than every country in the world with the exception of Indonesia, and as only 40% of its population has internet connectivity, it still has tremendous room to grow.

The chilling consequences of the Internet of Things

Tue, 14 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The proliferation of Internet of Things devices has eroded traditional boundaries of privacy, collecting and analyzing personal data in unprecedented ways. While offering benefits, this pervasive data collection raises ethical concerns and challenges our ability to control personal information. Upgraded laws and new control mechanisms are needed to address this evolving landscape.

In 1967, in an acclaimed book titled Privacy and Freedom, Alan Westin argued that privacy was just a form of control that individuals exert over their environment to determine when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others. The earliest example of this control was the walls we built to keep people from finding out what went on in the privacy of our homes. In time, this control was exercised through various laws that we enacted, including the confidentiality obligations that we invoke when we share personal information with our doctors and lawyers.

How capitalism evolved to drop its defence of privacy

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Historically, privacy was a luxury for the wealthy, who could afford private spaces and crafted distinct social personas. As society’s economic well-being improved, privacy became a societal expectation. Today, however, the rise of data-driven businesses threatens this privacy. Since privacy is rooted in capitalist interests, its preservation now conflicts with the commercial benefits of exploiting personal data. To protect privacy, we must establish commercial disincentives that outweigh the financial benefits of exploiting personal data.

Machines can err but humans aren’t infallible either

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It is important to incorporate human oversight into automated systems. Despite the efficiency of these systems, there is a need to balance human judgment with machine precision in critical decision-making processes.

On the morning of 26 September 1983, alarms went off at Serpukhov-15, the secret command centre of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. Soviet satellites that comprised Russia’s early warning system were reporting that five Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) had just been launched from an American base and were headed for the Soviet Union. Russia had just a few minutes to respond before the missiles—which were no doubt aimed at its own strike capabilities— destroyed the country’s ability to retaliate.

It’s time to frame rules for our artificial companions

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The rapid advancement of smart home devices, with their increasing conversational intelligence, is leading to a future where touch-based inputs may become obsolete. These devices offer significant benefits, such as aiding the elderly and entertaining children, but also raise complex ethical and legal challenges. Issues like privacy, psychological impacts, especially on the young and elderly, and the handling of sensitive information, such as potential abuse reports, require careful consideration. The evolving nature of these interactions necessitates a new framework to address the multifaceted implications of conversational AI in our daily lives.

Get set for a blend of reality and its augmented version

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Kevin Kelly predicts the dawn of a third platform age, following the World Wide Web and social media, which will digitize the physical world. This new platform involves a network of cameras capturing and uploading visual data to create a multi-dimensional digital representation of the world. Interaction with this digital world will be through connected glasses, blending augmented reality with the physical world, transforming education and entertainment. To avoid repeating history where U.S. corporations dominated previous platforms, proactive involvement in developing this technology and setting standards, particularly in AI and digitization, is crucial.

How digital trust systems can guard against false data

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

China’s social credit system monitors and scores citizens’ behaviors, rewarding or penalizing them accordingly. This system raises concerns about data accuracy and the impact of false information on individuals’ lives. As other countries might adopt similar systems, it’s crucial to ensure these algorithms are fair and continually reassess their trust evaluations to avoid unjust consequences.

In 1983, Tang Guoji graduated from ateachers’ college and applied for a job. Despite his more than adequate qualifications, he soon found that no work unit or graduate school in China was willing to employ him. He petitioned the government for a job and even filed complaints against the unfair treatment that was being meted out to him, but to no avail. He eventually became a freelance writer and earned some measure of success, but it wasn’t until 20 years later that he found out that he hadn’t been able to get a job after graduation because a college advisor whom he had rubbed the wrong way back in school had inserted a document into his dang’an that declared him mentally unstable.

Of digital competition and data transfer principles

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The UK’s Digital Competition Expert Panel report addresses digital market competition, expressing concerns about the harmful effects of concentration due to network effects in digital platforms. It recommends developing systems based on open standards for greater data mobility and openness, similar to India’s financial data transfer systems. The report also suggests establishing a new Digital Markets Unit for competitive conduct and reevaluating merger regulations to consider future innovation and competition impacts. However, the feasibility of accurately predicting the outcomes of tech acquisitions is questioned, suggesting that implementing effective data transfer systems might suffice to enhance market competition.

The dilemma of trying out new cures for malaria

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The alarming rise of drug-resistant malaria in South-East Asia necessitates the development of new treatment regimes in India. Controlled human infection model (CHIM) studies could expedite this process but raise significant ethical concerns. A robust ethical and regulatory framework is essential to proceed with such studies.

In 2015, the World Health Report stated that there had been 214 million cases of malaria worldwide with 438,000 deaths from it. This represents an 18% decrease in cases and a 48% decrease in mortality compared to 2000. However, what these figures hide is that over the past decade, there has been an alarming rise in reported cases of drug-resistant malaria all over South-East Asia—from Vietnam to Myanmar — and in Pakistan. Given this geographical spread, it is inevitable that drug-resistant malaria will come to India sooner rather than later. There is, therefore, an urgent need for us to develop new treatment regimes for this disease.

The need for an online dispute resolution mechanism

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Both Europe and India are looking to regulate e-commerce platforms. And while they have different approaches they agree on the need for an online dispute resolution process. As we build out these systems we should not just place a digital layer on top of existing dispute resolution methods. Instead we should take the opportunity to embed digital artefacts into the workflow that will conclusively establish whether contractual obligations have been performed.

India's draft e-commerce policy is more a miss than a hit

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The draft e-commerce policy released by the Indian government has been criticized for its broad and potentially harmful approach. It controversially claims collective ownership of data generated in India, suggesting state management over individual data rights. The policy misunderstands key technologies like AI, overemphasizes network effects, and ventures into unrelated domains like social media and taxation. Overall, it shows a lack of understanding of the sector it aims to regulate, which is disappointing for a technologically advanced nation like India.

Technology is making us less open to divergent views

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Social interactions have shifted from avoiding political and religious discussions to embracing them, as people now surround themselves with like-minded individuals. Social media platforms enable users to mute differing opinions, reinforcing their existing beliefs. We need to consciously engage with diverse viewpoints rather than allowing technology to further entrench tribal behaviors.

In her book Uncivil Agreement, Lilliana Mason makes a remarkably perceptive statement. There was a time, she observes, when religion and politics were never discussed at dinner parties. The guests we invited to our homes came from such diverse political, religious and cultural backgrounds that etiquette demanded that certain topics were just not raised for fear of accidentally offending someone.

For the digital world, customer is truly king

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past five years, the internet has seen the growth of large technology platforms in various sectors, leading to concerns about competition. Social media and aggregator platforms create a lock-in effect, where users and suppliers feel compelled to join popular platforms, leading to potential monopolies. Traditional competition law views monopolies as harmful, but these platforms challenge this view by improving consumer choice and service quality. However, this shift in market dynamics may harm smaller suppliers, suggesting a need for regulatory protection for these market participants.

Policy advocacy is really an exercise in compromise

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Despite a 2014 initiative by the ministry of law and justice that mandated pre-legislative consultation, in most instances the process is largely superficial. We need a more genuine and constructive engagement from both the government and stakeholders, emphasizing compromise and understanding. The government should actively facilitate pre-legislative consultation, evaluate competing suggestions, and align decisions with democratic values to ensure more meaningful participation in policy-making.

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussing the present and future state of technology policy in India. Over the course of that very engaging discussion, I was reminded of the many stark contrasts that characterize the way that tech policy is made in the country.

Account aggregators and e-consent for credit markets

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The public credit registry (PCR), a centralized credit information system, would improve data quality and help borrowers build reputational collateral. However, a PCR alone isn’t sufficient; lenders also need information on borrowers’ financial assets. The Reserve Bank of India’s account aggregator infrastructure addresses this by allowing borrowers to share financial asset information securely and with consent. While this system limits data misuse, it requires robust legal frameworks to ensure data is used only for intended purposes.

Ridding the judicial system of human subjectivity

Wed, 23 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Algorithmic sentencing, using machine learning to assess recidivism risk, has demonstrated consistent outcomes. But is not without flaws, sometimes reflecting human biases. Despite imperfections, I believe algorithms can introduce objectivity and be fine-tuned to reduce biases, making them more reliable than human judgment.

If it is to be completely fair, a legal system must be consistent. For justice to be meted out, a decision handed down by one judge should not be very different from that pronounced by another in a case with largely similar facts. In reality, however, this is rarely the case.

Time to redo FDI in e-commerce in India

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

India’s restriction on foreign investment in retail, extended to e-commerce, led to complex structures to navigate the limitation. The government’s recent regulations, instead of simplifying the policy, have endorsed the marketplace model, potentially leading to ongoing convoluted practices that may hinder consumer benefits and business ease.

India’s restriction on foreign investment in retail was originally inspired by government’s concern for the well-being of shopkeepers and small retailers. When the green shoots of e-commerce first became visible, this anxiety transferred to the digital world. The government issued a press note (Press Note 2 of 2000) that made it clear that restrictions in the offline world would apply with just as much vigour to the online world—establishing an equivalence that was unwarranted at the time between the nascent e-commerce industry and traditional Indian retail.

The Aadhaar amendment and private sector access

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar Amendment Bill, aiming to facilitate the continued use of Aadhaar within constraints set by the Supreme Court. The bill emphasizes voluntary use, gives statutory legitimacy to offline verification, strengthens privacy provisions, and controversially allows the private sector to regain access to Aadhaar infrastructure.

In the most recent twist in the Aadhaar saga, the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar Amendment Bill last week. This development has been met with widespread criticism and allegations that the government is trying to do indirectly what the Supreme Court has prohibited it from doing directly.

The utter meaninglessness of anonymizing telecom data sets

Wed, 02 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Mobile phones provide opportunities to obtain real-time movement information, aiding in crisis management like tracking disease spread. However, the balance between utilizing this data and ensuring privacy is complex. Current anonymization methods are inadequate, and conscientious use obligations may be a more effective approach to protect privacy.

The deep penetration of mobile phones has thrown up unique opportunities to solve some of the hardest challenges faced by countries in crisis. Given the number of people who now always carry a mobile phone on their person, we have, for the first time, a means to obtain granular, real-time movement information at a national scale.

When privacy, the word of the year, came into its own

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This year marked a significant shift in global privacy regulation, with the enforcement of Europe’s GDPR and similar laws in other regions. While focusing on consent, the inadequacy of this approach was exposed by tech companies’ practices. In India, the privacy debate intensified with court decisions on Aadhaar and the release of the Justice Srikrishna Committee’s draft bill.

It’s that time of the year when it seems incumbent on us columnists to look back at the eighteen score days gone by and reflect on the year that was. In the two years that I’ve been writing this column, I have resisted the urge to make the last article of the year a retrospective. However, this year has been an exceptional one for privacy and it would be remiss of a writer who focuses on the impact of law and technology on society not to reflect on the year that privacy came into its own.

Getting the Earth out of the Anthropocene period

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

For the past 12,000 years, Earth’s circular orbit has provided stable temperatures, fostering the Holocene era, crucial for human development and agriculture. This unique period of warmth, longer than previous interglacials, is threatened by human-induced climate change, with CO2 levels exceeding safe limits. The transition to the Anthropocene era, marked by significant human impact, necessitates urgent global action on sustainability and emissions reduction, as highlighted in recent international agreements and commitments by various US entities, despite federal resistance.

Manufacturing drugs on demand

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The intricate, global supply chains and specialized production processes in modern industry, poses challenges - especially in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where supply chain disruptions can be life-threatening. Recent developments in continuous, on-demand drug manufacturing, like MIT’s compact synthesis unit, offer revolutionary solutions but clash with current regulatory frameworks, necessitating regulatory adaptation to embrace these technological advancements.

In 1958, Leonard Reed published a simple first-person essay entitled I, Pencil to describe the complexity of modern economics. By tracing the lineage of a simple wooden lead pencil—from the cedar tree that is cut down and shaped into the pencil length slats that are smoothed, waxed and lacquered to the form we can identify, to the graphite that is mined in Sri Lanka, mixed with clay, tallow and ammonium hydroxide before being extruded and baked into the thin black “lead" that we recognize—Reed vividly describes the number of steps that go into the production of an object as commonplace as a pencil. He ends the essay by remarking that even though the skill and labour of millions of people have had a hand in the manufacture of each pencil, no one person on the planet has the complete knowledge that is required to make it. While the essay was written to explain Adam Smith’s concept of the invisible hand in free-market economics, it is a handy illustration of the incredible complexity of modern manufacturing. Unlike in the days before the Industrial Revolution when shoemakers, tailors, carpenters and other artisans made every last bit of their products by hand, very few production facilities today are capable of producing the entire finished product from scratch. The process of modern manufacturing at industrial scale involves the establishment of multiple production facilities designed to individually produce vast quantities of components that are themselves designed to be combined, in even larger assembly lines, into the final finished product.

The downside of gene editing

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Chinese researcher He Jiankui’s use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit a human embryo has sparked international condemnation. The editing, aimed at disabling a gene to increase resistance to diseases like AIDS, raises ethical concerns, risks unforeseen consequences, and highlights the need for a formal global treaty on gene editing.

Last week, the scientific press was filled with reports that He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher, had managed to successfully use CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit a human embryo and effectively disable a gene (called CCR5) that is responsible for creating the protein pathways through which various viruses infect human cells. Embryos created using this method will, if brought to full term, result in babies that are highly resistant to diseases such as AIDS, cholera and smallpox.

The use of technology in providing healthcare

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest public health insurance program, aims to cover 500 million people in India. Its success depends on using technology to scale health services, monitor treatment, and ensure accountability. Despite challenges in digitizing healthcare, India has the opportunity to create a unified framework for medical data exchange, prioritizing patient rights, privacy, and cross-platform accessibility.

Ayushman Bharat is going to cover 500 million people, making it the world’s largest public health insurance programme. However, it will only be successful if the Indian government uses technology in every aspect of the project—to scale the provision of health services, monitor treatment and ensure accountability.

The challenge of detecting fake content

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The information revolution has disrupted traditional media gatekeeping, leading to the unchecked spread of misinformation. The rise of deep fake technology, creating indistinguishable false content, exacerbates this issue. Governments are struggling to regulate, and potential solutions like immutable life logs raise privacy concerns.

The information revolution has dramatically disrupted the news industry. Where we used to rely on media organizations to distribute news and other information, we now get our content from multiple sources too numerous to name. While this has given us access to a wider range of information, it has more than a few unintended consequences.

Using artificial intelligence more effectively

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Despite its initial promise, AI solutions often fall short in the Indian legal context due to training on non-local data. A hybrid human-AI approach could build more responsive and effective systems.

In 1770, long before computers were invented, Wolfgang von Kempelen built what was widely believed to be the world’s first intelligent machine—a device so smart that it consistently beat some of the best minds of the day at chess. This human sized chess-playing automaton was dressed up to look like a turbaned Turk (because it was believed that chess originated in Turkey) and could physically move the pieces around the board in response to moves made by its opponent.

Genetic matchmaking can improve medical outcomes

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Population bottlenecks increase susceptibility to genetic diseases like Tay-Sachs. To mitigate this, initiatives like Dor Yeshorem screen for recessive genes in high-risk communities. Similar genetic risks exist in India’s endogamous groups, indicating a need for widespread genetic analysis to improve medical outcomes and potentially integrate genetic compatibility into marriage decisions.

Recent studies of the whole human genome have proven that the entire population of Ashkenazi Jews in existence today descended from no more than 350 individuals who lived 800 years ago. The genetic similarities among members of this sect were found to be so acute that everyone in the community is, at the very least, the 30th cousin of everyone else. This level of consanguinity only occurs when a relatively small community is kept isolated for geographical or social reasons resulting in large scale and persistent in-breeding. Population bottlenecks such as this have been observed among the Finns, the French Canadians in Saguenay–Lac-St.-Jean, and in orthodox religious groups such as the Amish and the Hutterites.

Ensuring that the vulnerable benefit from Aadhaar

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment the use of offline QR-based verification will prove to be a viable alternative that will allow us to continue to benefit from the Aadhaar identity system without exposing Aadhaar number holders to the many harms that the SC judgment was at pains to avoid.

It’s been nearly a month since the Supreme Court (SC) judgment on Aadhaar. Let’s take stock of where we are.

Technological restrictions in the new drone policy

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The 2018 drone policy imposes registration and tech requirements on all but the smallest drones and requires all drones to incorporate NPNT technology that will allow for automated flight approvals through the digital sky platform.

Even though India’s new drone policy will not come into effect till 1 December 2018, it is already being called unnecessarily rigorous and sweeping. By requiring drones weighing more than 250 grams to be registered, it has ensured that all but the most rudimentary toy drones will be covered by its provisions. This is being seen by many as unnecessarily expansive.

Algebra Conversations on Privacy 3.0

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

As part of the Algebra Conversations, I sit down with Shoma Choudhary to discuss the evolution of privacy in India and the world and the many ideas around the future of data protection that I’ve discussed in my book Privacy 3.0.

Restoring the original vision of the internet

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The modern internet has become centralized and controlled by a few powerful corporations, deviating from its original vision of an open and decentralized platform. Tim Berners-Lee, the founding father of the internet, is working on a project called Solid to restore power to users by allowing them to store personal information in personal data stores (PDS) under their control. That said, universally accepted standards for electronic consent and true social graph portability might be a more effective way to balance convenience and data protection.

India's Telecom Revolution

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Pragati podcast with Pavan Srinath and Hamsini Hariharan.

We discussed the constitutionality of how the Aadhaar Act, how and whether Aadhaar can be used by for government subsidies, taxes, and more – and whether it can be used by the private sector at all.

The Aadhaar verdict: everybody lost

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

everybody-lost/ categories: “articles” modified: 2026-01-06T12:37 writingStatus: published publication: Ex Machina created: 2023-04-22T10:17

The recent Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar has left confusion and dissatisfaction among various stakeholders. While the court upheld the identity scheme, it restricted its scope, leading to uncertainty over the role of the private sector in Aadhaar’s infrastructure. The judgment’s implications on government services and subsidies, many of which rely on private sector authentication, remain unclear, raising concerns about potential negative impacts on pensioners, migrant workers, and microfinance beneficiaries.

The risk of planetary geoengineering

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The phenomenon of Mount Pinatubo’s eruption reducing global temperatures has led scientists to consider geoengineering as a solution to global warming. However, past attempts at weather control, such as Project Cirrus in the 1940s, have had unintended and devastating effects, raising concerns about the unpredictability and potential dangers of implementing such large-scale interventions.

In 1991, when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted, it spewed over 20 million tonnes of sulphur into the upper atmosphere. Shortly thereafter we began to witness a strange phenomenon. The sulphates in the stratosphere were acting as a sort of a sun visor, shielding the earth from the sun’s rays and reducing global temperatures by nearly half a degree Celsius by the end of the year.

Optimizing the flow of road traffic

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Is there a solution to the frequent traffic jams in modern metropolitan cities in the emergent behaviour of fire ants. Ant colonies intuitively maintain optimal flow without clogging passageways. Applying this understanding, along with modern technology and autonomous vehicles, could potentially solve urban traffic problems.

One of the benefits (if you can call it that) of living in a rapidly exploding metropolitan city is that I have plenty of opportunity to observe how traffic jams develop. Many are the days that I have looked out of my office window and noticed that cars that, until moments ago were flowing smoothly, have begun to imperceptibly slow down until they eventually crawl to a stop, unable to move any further because of the sheer number of vehicles on the road.

When parents damage their children’s digital privacy

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The draft Personal Data Protection Bill in India aims to protect children’s online privacy through age verification and parental consent. However, these measures raise concerns about the loss of internet anonymity and practical issues with the age threshold. The Bill’s approach may inadvertently expose children to privacy risks, including those stemming from well-intentioned parental actions, and fails to consider children’s ability to make decisions about their privacy before reaching the age of majority.

Leveraging new technologies for development

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Vikram Sarabhai’s vision exemplifies India’s ability to leapfrog technological generations, learning from global advancements and avoiding their pitfalls, particularly in data technology, healthcare, and urban mobility. It should give us the confidence to shake of path dependence and try new innovative solutions to modern problems.

Vikram Sarabhai was born with a silver spoon. As the son of industrialist Ambalal Sarabhai, he could have done anything he wanted with his life. But, instead of becoming the businessman everyone expected, he chose the path of science. He earned a degree from Cambridge, studied under the legendary C.V. Raman and had already set up the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad before embarking on an audacious plan to set up a rocket launch facility in India.

Disruption and innovation in the legal industry

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Disruption always comes from where we least expect it. Lawyers exercise an iron grip over their profession. They determine who can practise law and how they should conduct their business. They organize themselves in bar councils that then determine how they can (and cannot) advertise and with whom they can share profits. If librarians had exerted the same sort of control over the organization of information as lawyers do over the business of the law, the modern internet might never have come to pass. Unless we lawyers can loosen the iron grip that we have over the business of law, the profession might never see the disruption that it needs and deserves.

Limiting the government’s ability to violate privacy

Sat, 18 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Justice Brandeis’ dissent in the matter of Roy Olmstead, emphasises the dangers of unchecked government surveillance and the need for privacy laws to evolve with technology, remains highly relevant, especially in discussions about government exemptions in privacy laws and the balance between using technology for social good and protecting civil liberties.

In the 1920s, Roy Olmstead was the most successful and powerful bootlegger in Seattle. He ran an organization of over 50 employees that, during the prohibition, brought liquor from England to Canada in ocean freighters and then smuggled them into the US on a fleet of speedboats. As a former policeman, he operated without fear of the local constabulary, keeping the police and even the mayor of Seattle in his pay.

Autonomous transportation at scale is here

Wed, 15 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There has been a swift rise in autonomous vehicles on roads. This rapid growth necessitates urgent regulation, particularly around ethical programming decisions and societal impacts. The transition to autonomous vehicles will significantly alter urban life and labor markets, potentially leading to urban segregation and widespread unemployment as human drivers are replaced by robots, underscoring the need for thoughtful societal and regulatory responses to this technological evolution.

Google’s self-driving project, Waymo, began in 2009. Since then, the fleet has covered more than 5 million miles. According to the Waymo blog, it took them six years to cover the first million miles but just over a year to cover the next million. The third took them under eight months and the fourth just six. The last million miles were completed in less than three months. Today, the entire fleet covers over 10,000 miles per day.

The lady with the lamp and data-driven medicine

Wed, 08 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Florence Nightingale’s contributions to medical science extended beyond nursing to include statistical analysis, leading to significant hospital reforms. Despite technological advancements, the medical profession still lags in adopting data technologies like AI. Regulations constraining data within national boundaries may hinder the development of these technologies.

Florence Nightingale earned the sobriquet “the Lady with the Lamp" for her extraordinary dedication to the injured and the dying during the Crimean War. However, as much as she is known for her actions on the war front, it is her contributions to medical science that have had a lasting impact on the world.

Balancing Big Data and privacy

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Justice Srikrishna Committee’s data protection framework aims to balance individual privacy with the growth of the digital economy, distinct from models in the US, EU, and China. But the committee missed opportunities to encourage de-identified data use and set impractical standards for anonymization. Concerns arise from the draft law’s definition of harm, potentially hindering AI and machine learning applications in social contexts by categorizing service denial based on evaluative decisions as harmful, which could restrict beneficial financial and social inclusion technologies.

The Achilles heel of the draft personal data Bill

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Srikrishna Committee report on India’s new privacy framework has been criticized for seemingly granting the government latitude in state surveillance, including national security exemptions. While similar exemptions are common in global data protection laws, concerns arise from the report’s failure to address practical concerns and the draft Bill’s inability to hold the government accountable for privacy violations. The penalties, designed with private entities in mind, may leave government data fiduciaries without fear of consequence.

Complexity will be the privacy law’s undoing

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Justice Srikrishna Committee’s report on data protection proposes a user-centric framework, emphasizing data portability and privacy by design. However, its approach to consent, applying product liability principles and creating a complex, multilayered consent framework, may be impractical and burdensome for businesses, particularly startups. These measures, while aiming to enhance privacy, could introduce additional friction for users and businesses, potentially exacerbating consent fatigue.

The Justice Srikrishna Committee report is finally out and initial reactions are mixed. The introductory chapter promised a modern data-protection regime that would address the challenges of a data-rich world, and deliver a personal data protection law that ensures personal privacy and autonomy—while at the same time allowing for data flows and the creation of a free and fair digital economy. Having spent most of the weekend poring through the report and the accompanying draft Bill, I am sorry to say it flatters to deceive.

India's Telecom Revolution

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Pragati podcast with Pavan Srinath.

We discussed how India liberalised its telecom policies step by step, allowing the sector to grow, allowing competition to thrive, and enabling millions till close to a billion Indians now have access to cellphones and get connected with the rest of India and the world.

Privacy for 21st Century India

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Pragati podcast with Pavan Srinath and Hamsini Hariharan.

We discussed my book Privacy 3.0 and some of the ideas I discuss in it. Like whether walls created privacy, and whether the internet going to destroy it? Is Privacy a western idea, being imported to India?

Privacy for 21st Century India

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I appeared on the Pragati podcast with Pavan Srinath and Hamsini Hariharan.

We discussed my book Privacy 3.0 and how personal data has never been more valuable, and has never been at more risk. I talked about my involvement in drafting a data protection law, and shared stories from the legal and legislative history of privacy in India.

A creeping expansion of TRAI’s authority

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian government is leveraging its authority over telecom operators to indirectly regulate entities like WhatsApp and mobile manufacturers, which are beyond its direct control in an attempt to combat issues like fake news and ensure compliance with Do Not Disturb regulations. This approach indicates a strategy to extend regulatory authority into areas beyond its statutory reach, potentially compelling entities to comply to maintain access to the Indian market.

It is not immediately apparent to the lay person, but the design of our telecom regulatory framework is different from other sectors. Among the many reasons for this distinction is the pre-independence legislation that governs the sector — a law that was once used to regulate telegraphs but which has, over the years, been force-fitted to apply to modern technology.

Easing the regulatory burden on the Internet of Things

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The growth of IoT, particularly in sectors like transportation, faces regulatory challenges in India. Current telecom regulations, including customer verification for SIMs and limits on M2M (machine-to-machine) SIMs, hinder IoT development. We need less burdensome alternatives, like data-only SIMs and automatic deactivation upon removal, to balance industry growth with security concerns.

They say that by 2020, there will be 50 billion connected things on the planet. This already includes your refrigerator, weighing scale, coffee machine, household lighting systems and intelligent assistants, and will very soon (if not already) extend to the cars you use to commute, the restaurants and pubs you visit and even the locomotives and aeroplanes in which you travel.

The need for innovation in the legal sector

Wed, 04 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It is the nature of innovation that the ideas that gain traction are those that offer direct, tangible benefits to users. Since most legal technologies solve client problems they benefit clients more than the lawyers who use them. Legal technologies are slow ideas that will not disrupt the profession. We need fast, disruptive ideas and all that we are getting is incremental improvements in efficiency.

For the most part, the disruptive changes that have felled multiple traditional businesses seem to have left the legal industry pretty much untouched. It is not as if we are complete Luddites. Computers and the internet have certainly altered the way in which lawyers do their research and prepare briefs and agreements. It has even improved the efficiency of the courts, not least in the manner that they communicate the next day’s cause lists to us. But these changes are minor compared to the disruption other industries are facing.

India should make clear laws on data collection

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The US Supreme Court recently ruled that collecting cellphone location data without a warrant violated privacy. This case challenges the third-party doctrine, which states that shared personal information has reduced privacy expectations. The ruling highlights the difficulty of applying traditional legal principles to modern technology, particularly regarding data privacy. This case could guide Indian privacy law, emphasizing the need for clear legislative direction on data collection and privacy.

Last week, the US Supreme Court delivered its long-awaited judgement in the case of Carpenter v. United States, a decision that will, hereafter, influence the way we think about privacy and surveillance anywhere in the connected world. While the judgement largely addresses the peculiarities of US privacy jurisprudence, the issues that it deals with carry a broader message about the problems with trying to regulate modern technology using traditional principles of law.

History shows us how to deal with news echo chambers

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Benjamin Day published The Sun which was the world’s first penny press newspaper that was entirely ad-supported. This gave rise to advertising as a means to support the cost of news. Warren and Brandeis defined the Right to Privacy which contributed to the decline of yellow journalism. We need a similar reconceptualisation of regulation today to address the menace of ad driven news.

On 3 September 1833, a 23-year-old typesetter called Benjamin Day published the very first edition of the The Sun. As the first batch of 1,000 copies rolled out of his press, he had no idea that the handbill he had just produced would take the newspaper industry in a direction that would come to dominate the way news was consumed all over the world. All he cared was how he was going to make ends meet.

Elon Musk wants to colonise Mars but Earth needs to write its constitution first

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

SpaceX’s plans for Mars colonization, challenge traditional space exploration norms dominated by governments. This raises questions about the regulation of private space exploration and the governance of extraterrestrial colonies, highlighting the need for a new regulatory framework as private companies lead space exploration.

When SpaceX, Elon Musk’s other business venture, successfully launched its largest rocket yet, all everyone could talk about was its payload. There is something delightfully rakish about hurling your own, personal red Tesla Roadster into space with the words “Don’t Panic" emblazoned in big bold letters on the dashboard, while the stereo blasts David Bowie’s Space Oddity. But this is the new face of the modern space race—bold, in-your-face and ambitious.

The unintended consequences of Europe’s GDPR

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25 May, affecting entities worldwide that do business with EU citizens. While the regulation has stringent requirements for consent and high penalties for non-compliance, it may have unintended consequences. Large platforms can easily adapt, but smaller entities and start-ups may struggle with the complexity and cost of compliance, potentially leading to a consolidation towards large data platforms and a chilling effect on new ventures.

Will humans be part of the wars of the future?

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There are inherrent challenges of using autonomous weapons with human oversight - in particular the fact that human judgment becomes an “inconvenient impediment” to the speed of modern warfare. Future wars, especially in the cybernetic arena, may render human intervention meaningless - and that should raise ethical and practical concerns.

We have long believed that the easiest way to ensure that autonomous weapons are safe is to put a human in the loop. This is why we have designed our autonomous systems so that no matter how sophisticated the technology might be in identifying the target and delivering the payload within its vicinity, that final judgement call as to whether or not the strike should take place is left to a human being. This construct, we feel, addresses many of the ethical and legal issues with robotic weapons and allows us to proceed to use them.

How connected devices will change our lives

Wed, 16 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The proliferation of smart devices offers convenience by automating and personalizing daily tasks, like brewing coffee when an alarm is switched off. Integrating these devices with AI-powered smart speakers enhances this automation, but raises privacy concerns as these systems collect detailed personal data. This data could revolutionize e-commerce by predicting and fulfilling consumer needs before they’re explicitly expressed, shifting from a shop-then-ship to a ship-then-shop model, but at the cost of increased surveillance and data collection.

Artificial Intelligence and the Law of the Horse

Wed, 09 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We should not create specific laws for new technologies when general legal principles will suffice. Recently, a government task force recommended applying existing legal provisions to AI, but this approach may not address AI’s unique aspects, such as personhood and liability in autonomous systems. The complexity of AI decisions, especially in impactful areas like criminal sentencing, necessitates a tailored regulatory framework that balances accuracy with explainability, challenging the notion of applying traditional legal principles to AI regulation.

A game of Chinese whispers in the Aadhaar case

Wed, 02 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There is a need for accurate, real-time court reporting by professional journalists. At present we are relying on lawyers’ live tweets that cannot be expected to be unbiased and factual public information. We need to make changes to enable this institutionally.

Last week, I had the opportunity to listen to the Aadhaar arguments in the Supreme Court (SC). Senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi was on his feet, arguing on behalf of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and just before he sat down, he reminded the court that he’d promised them an answer on the question of mandatory linking of SIM cards.

The futility of prohibiting bitcoin trade

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has banned regulated entities from providing services related to virtual currencies, citing concerns over consumer protection, market integrity, and money laundering. I question the necessity of this step, since the perceived anonymity of bitcoin transactions can be penetrated. What’s more, the ban may drive nefarious activities further underground, making them harder to detect. I suggest improving forensic skills might be a more effective approach.

Internet was designed to understand and track us

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The internet, originally designed for data collection and surveillance, faces a credibility crisis due to its misuse for manipulating public opinion. Its origins trace back to Hollerith’s punch card tabulators, which evolved into a government surveillance tool. Despite historical protests against its potential for “computerized people manipulation,” the internet’s utility has consistently outweighed concerns, leading to its current indispensable status. Yet, recent scandals like Facebook-Cambridge Analytica highlight ongoing tensions between its benefits and the risks of data misuse.

A new direction for data privacy in healthcare

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The draft Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act aims to regulate the use of digital health data, emphasizing patient consent and privacy. It allows anonymized data for public health research but restricts commercial use. However, its timing is questionable, as it precedes the anticipated overarching national data protection framework, potentially leading to inconsistencies in privacy regulations across sectors.

I have long been interested in the many applications of data to the medical profession. Medical professionals have traditionally been limited to using the information they get from a physical examination of the patient—the records of his past medical history and the specific medical tests that the doctor may have thought of requesting.

India need not adopt the onerous European General Data Protection Regulation

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There is no need for India to adopt GDPR-like data protection laws as it will hinder local innovation. Historically speaking countries took their time to arrive at a standardised approach to IP law and we need to follow a similar approach - taking a tailored approach to data regulation that balances protection with fostering its burgeoning data industry.

When the nations of Europe signed the Berne Convention in 1861, they were agreeing to accord reciprocal rights to authors of each others’ countries. But even as all of Europe was coming together, American publishers stayed away, refusing to acknowledge that non-resident authors had any copyright within the territory of the US. They wanted to treat the works of these foreign authors as unprotected “common" property so that they could publish their books without need for license or permission. And so, the US government, disregarding the entreaties of well-known British authors like Charles Dickens, sided with its domestic publishing industry. It was not until their own authors—Mark Twain and the like—suffered a similar fate at the hands of Canadian publishers, that the US enacted reciprocal copyright laws.

Do away with consent to strengthen data privacy

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

That consent to the Facebook privacy policy could be used as a defence against the consequences of the Cambridge Analytica incident is an indication that consent cannot be our primary safeguard. The accountability framework is the only effective alternative to consent.

Much of the outrage around the recent Cambridge Analytica incident has centred around the fact that academic Aleksandr Kogan could, with a simple Facebook survey app, leverage 270,000 survey respondents to gain access to the data of 50 million users directly from the Facebook platform. While most of those respondents were dimly aware that they must have consented to sharing personal information, many of them were surprised (outraged even) that, in addition to information about them, the app was able to harvest information about their friends as well.

Will technology be able to disrupt the legal industry?

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Complexity is the friction of the legal system. We need to simplify the entire legal system - making it more accessible and less mysterious. The reason we have not been able to achieve this is because unlike all other industries, lawyers exercise 360-degree control over every facet of the legal industry and protect the profession from disruption.

We rarely see disruption coming. Most businesses function under the belief that the infrastructure that supports their operations is so difficult to replicate that its very existence is a barrier against competition.

Does right to life include advance directives?

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Supreme Court has held that right to live with dignity includes within it the obligation to smoothen the process of dying for terminally ill patients who have no hope of recovery but has imposed too many bureaucratic processes on the exercise of that right.

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article about the moral challenges with extending the life of terminally ill patients beyond the natural length dictated by the illness. If the article seemed inconclusive it was because it was written shortly after I lost a friend to cancer and the wounds were still raw. At the time, the law on the subject was unsettled and the piece was a lament about the legal uncertainties that made these situations hard to deal with.

Genetic diseases should be covered by insurance

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Delhi High court has held that rejecting an insurance claim on the grounds of the genetic conditions exclusion issued by the IRDAI would be violative of violative of Article 14 since discrimination on the basis of genetic heritage is unconstitutional.

The economic rationale behind insurance is based on the assumption that even though a large number of policyholders regularly pay their premium, a relatively smaller percentage of them will actually make a claim. That being the case, all that the insurance company needs to do is ensure that its policyholder surplus is positive so that whenever a claim is made, there is enough money in the bank to pay it out.

Battery harmonization will help electric vehicles

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Tim Harford’s book highlights the shipping container’s pivotal role in globalizing the economy. Similarly, the electric vehicle (EV) industry could revolutionize transportation with standardized battery design and swapping technology, as demonstrated by Ashok Leyland’s rapid battery replacement system. India, aiming for an all-electric fleet by 2030, could lead this transformation.

There is an entire chapter in Tim Harford’s book Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy devoted to the shipping container. It seems incongruous that something so simple would feature in a book like this, but Harford argues that this is probably the one invention that made our global economy truly global.

The backfire effect and the menace of fake news

Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The “backfire effect” is a cognitive bias that causes people to double down on their beliefs despite evidence to the contrary. This makes fake news hard to combat because it taps into regional cultural norms and beliefs, making it resonate deeply with its intended audience. The only effective remedy is to engage with fake news at a subliminal level, recognizing its impact on political views and opinions.

If you are active online, you will, at some time or the other, have been drawn into an argument you found yourself simply incapable of winning. Chances are the issues at stake involved facts that should never have been up for debate in the first place. And yet it is precisely these sorts of issues—which involve what has collectively begun to be called fake news—that are a lightning rod for online discussion.

Decentralised Urban Management

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The command and contro style of administration that we have been using to manage our electricity and urban water utilities so far are unable to cope with the demands of rapid urbanisation. We need to leverage technology to build decentralised urban management solutions that will enable distributed generation and supply of urban power and water.

When electricity first began to be used in the US, generating systems were built in order to power and illuminate mines, factories and other commercial establishments. These were “private" power plants built on site to meet the specific energy requirements of a business. In those days, only the very wealthy could afford to have their homes powered by electricity.

Where have all the polymaths gone?

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor because he could find connections between a series of unrelated inventions and ideas. Cross-disciplinary collaboration is critical for innovation and we should guard against the current trend of specialization that may hinder innovation.

In 1872, a photographer named Eadweard Muybridge was called upon to settle a bet between Leland Stanford, the governor of California, and his friend Frederick MacCrellish. The disagreement had to do with whether a horse in gallop ever had all four feet in the air or if at all times it had at least one foot on the ground. To settle this, Muybridge set up 12 cameras at 40ft intervals along the side of a racetrack, so that each took a photograph as the horse broke through a series of threads stretched across its path. He had created the world’s first slow-motion replay, and in the process proved that a horse in full gallop does get all four feet off the ground.

The future of retail

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The evolution of retail will feature a blend of online and offline shopping experiences. Yet physical stores will continut to be important. Amazon Go, a cashier-less store, combines the efficiency of online shopping with the tangible experience of brick-and-mortar stores.

We have witnessed huge changes in the retail industry over the past few years. Thanks to e-commerce, we’ve become comfortable with the idea of not having to go to a physical store to shop. We have learned to factor delivery times into our shopping schedules, knowing that impulse purchases are going to take a week to arrive at our doorstep—and that last-minute shopping is no longer a viable option. We have learned to trust the algorithms to suggest things we might like based on our past purchases. For inveterate shoppers, this has become the new avatar of window shopping.

In defence of friction

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

To build successful online businesses we need to identify long-standing human desires and use technology to simplify their fulfillment. While technology excels at reducing friction in services like transportation, finance, and shopping, excessive ease can lead to unintended consequences. Regulators face the challenge of balancing technological innovation with necessary legal friction to prevent harm.

According to Ev Williams, the hugely successful founder of genre-defining online products such as Blogger, Twitter and Medium, the way to build multi-billion dollar online businesses is to “take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time… identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps."

The circular economy

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The circular economy is a regenerative model aimed at minimizing waste and making the most of resources which is in contrast to our current economic model that emphasizes consumption and planned obsolescence. India, with its cultural inclination towards reuse and recycling, has the opportunity to incorporate principles of the circular economy in various sectors like construction, agriculture, and urban mobility, and businesses can do the same into their operations.

Sometime back, I had written about planned obsolescence and the challenges of the disposable economy. About how products today are designed to have a shelf life—a period of time during which they can be used and after which we are constrained to replace them—either because a newer, more feature-rich model has presented itself or because the latest apps and software run too slowly on these old machines.

Skinny Solstice

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There is value in large datasets that reveal statistically relevant insights - such as trends in fast food visits or sleep patterns. This is relevant to India’s growing data economy given the potential to use aggregated anonymous data to make informed decisions. We need to implement privacy by design, and for that organizations need to de-identify personal information to prevent potential harm if the data is lost or stolen.

Last Monday was Skinny Solstice. According to Foursquare, a search-and-discovery service mobile app, it is the day in the year that sees the lowest number of visits to fast food restaurants. It seemed this year it might also have been the day that everyone had decided to take up a gym membership because my gym was absolutely packed. It isn’t hard to figure out what was happening. The first Monday after New Year’s Day is the day most people get back from the holidays and is the first chance they get to put their New Year’s resolutions into action. After a guilt-ridden holiday season of feasting and relaxation, fitness is probably the first thing they think of implementing. In a month’s time, on the second Friday in February, it will be Fatty Solstice, the day which, according to Foursquare, has the highest number of fast food visits of any of the first three months of the year. That seems to be about as long as it takes us to realize that it’s too hard to stick to good intentions.

Biology as engineering

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Biology’s evolution from empirical to engineered, driven by network computing and big data, is revolutionizing healthcare and drug discovery. Innovations like Patient Ping enhance coordinated care, while computational techniques streamline molecule identification, reducing trial and error. Advances in organ-on-a-chip and cell engineering enable more precise, individualized treatments, necessitating a reevaluation of regulatory and intellectual property frameworks.

One of the most exciting technology developments of the last few years has been the evolution of biology from an empirical discipline to an engineered one. For the most part, this is because of the cross-over that has been made possible by network computing and big data.

Bitcoin and the law of centralization

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The evolution of internet access in India, from a single-user bulletin board service to the vast, decentralized web, mirrors a broader trend towards centralization in digital services. Despite the internet’s expansive possibilities, most users gravitate towards a few familiar sites. This centralization tendency is also evident in Bitcoin’s blockchain technology, where mining pools’ dominance challenges the decentralized ideal, highlighting the need for potential regulatory intervention or system redesign.

The first time I went online it was over a 2,400-bits-per-second dial-up modem. At that time, there was no internet in India and the nearest I could get to something that resembled it was CiX, a bulletin board service operated by the unforgettable Atul Chitnis. Since only one person could log on at a given time, everything on CiX took place asynchronously. You dialled up, downloaded whatever you had to and quickly logged off so that you freed the modem up for the others waiting to log on. In those early days of the internet, we spent more time offline than connected. It was a tiny walled garden but given we had no options, it was the only way we could get online.

Data subject first

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In early 1800s America, credit was based on personal familiarity. Lewis Tappan revolutionized this by selling credit ratings, leading to the birth of credit reporting agencies. Today, these agencies hold extensive personal data, influencing major life decisions. India, formulating its first privacy legislation, faces a similar choice: regulate data collectors or empower individuals to control their data usage.

In America, in the early 1800s, you could only get credit with familiarity. If you were a regular customer, traders knew your business and the reputation of your family, and on that basis were happy to extend you credit. However, thanks to galloping urbanization, there was a rapid influx of strangers into cities, and traders were forced to start dealing with people they didn’t know.

Unintended consequences of autonomous transportation

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Urban mobility is on the brink of transformation with the convergence of on-demand transport, electric engines, and autonomous vehicles. This shift could lead to the end of car ownership, fossil fuel-powered vehicles, and traditional traffic management. It may also free up urban space, reduce transportation costs, and allow India, with its low automobile ownership, to lead this revolution with forward-looking policies and infrastructure development.

We are on the threshold of a revolution in urban mobility. Three distinct streams of innovation are converging on a future that is significantly different from what any of us would have imagined possible even five years ago.

War of the machines

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The emerging threat of autonomous drones equipped with facial recognition and AI technologies raises new concerns when it comes to the future of warfare. The moral and ethical concerns of fully autonomous weapons calls for an international agreement to ban such technology, akin to the ban on biological weapons.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a video that had been doing the rounds on WhatsApp. It featured a miniature drone imbued with facial recognition and artificial intelligence technologies that could accurately identify a human target and fly close enough so that when it detonated, the precisely shaped plastic explosive payload that it was carrying took out the target with no collateral damage. When used in concert with other autonomous drones, they can coordinate attacks, breach buildings and reach places where human soldiers couldn’t hope to enter. This is the new face of warfare.

Trust works two ways

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The increasing reliance on social ratings and feedback loops in services like ride-sharing platforms is leading to a system where personal ratings may determine access to services. This trend, mirrored in China’s proposed national trust score, raises concerns about algorithmic discrimination and its societal impact.

Last month, a friend of mine in the US told me that after he booked a cab on a ride sharing platform, he got an apologetic message from the driver cancelling the ride. By way of explanation, the message said that, for personal safety reasons, he didn’t accept rides from passengers with a rating of less than 4.7. Even though this is exactly how the dual feedback loop is supposed to work, I was surprised because this was the very first time I’d heard it being made to work against the recipient of services.

Tabula Rasa

Wed, 01 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

DeepMind has developed the world’s first tabula rasa algorithm, AlphaGo Zero, which learns from scratch without relying on human expertise or existing data. Unlike previous AI models, it learns through self-play, achieving mastery in the game of Go and uncovering novel strategies. This approach could revolutionize areas like genomic research and law, reducing concerns about privacy and human bias in algorithmic decision-making, and possibly leading to true artificial general intelligence.

Recommendation engines

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Algorithms in streaming services and e-book libraries curate content based on individual preferences, often with impressive accuracy. However, the downside to this is the eventual homogenization of content. By continually reinforcing original preferences, the algorithms can lead to a lack of diversity in the content presented. We need to seek out new and different content, recognizing that while algorithms are powerful tools, they have limitations. They are only as good as the data they’ve been trained on, and without regular updates to keep them fresh and relevant, they can become restrictive rather than expansive in their recommendations.

What will the new jobs look like?

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Despite the challenges of automation and a shrinking services sector, there is untapped potential for jobs in areas like fintech and healthcare. India should create new business models and employment opportunities by leveraging its unique economy, rather than relying on manufacturing as a temporary solution.

Last week, I was speaking at a conference on the future of work and I got into a bit of an argument with the rest of the panel as to whether the future will in fact be bleak as they were making it seem. I know that the data doesn’t look good. As much as 65% of the Indian population is of a working age and over the next 15 years, an additional 18 million Indians will enter the workforce every year. But the organized sector will only be able to generate 5.5 million additional jobs a year. The services sector that India relies on to deliver new jobs is witnessing unprecedented contraction due to an adverse global political climate coupled with the rapidly increasing impact of automation.

The psychology of hate

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The psychology of hate and dehumanization shows that a lack of social contact between different groups can lead to radical biases. The internet’s role in social interaction has eroded empathy and increased division, leading to a rise in hate and violence.

The goings-on in Charlottesville and Myanmar got me thinking about hate and what it is about our society today that makes us capable of taking human life because we perceive people to be different from us.

False confidence

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

As reliance on electronic systems grows, it’s crucial to ensure accurate user identification. Authentication protocols should use permanent, non-reusable IDs, expanding digits if necessary. We must build robust systems that are error-resistant to match the increasing trust we place in them.

Flying through Hyderabad airport these days is a true delight. It is the country’s first entirely digital airport—which means that you no longer need to print your boarding pass or ticket to access any part of the airport. All you need is a digital copy of your ticket or boarding pass on your mobile device and whenever you come upon a checkpoint (as you enter the airport, pass through security or approach the boarding gates) all you need to do is wave the QR code under a scanner and the system records the fact that you have passed through into this new area of the airport. If you travel without any check-in baggage, as I do most of the time, you can enter the airport through a special entrance down by the side of the airport building, completely bypassing the check-in counters and directly clearing security so that you almost immediately enter the boarding areas.

Intermediating supply and demand

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Traditional market models, focusing on supply control of scarce commodities, are outdated for the internet age. Modern tech companies grow by enhancing user experience and creating demand-driven platforms. This self-perpetuating cycle benefits consumers, challenging the need for market fragmentation. Indian competition authorities should independently assess the best approach to truly benefit consumers, even if it diverges from global norms.

Our traditional understanding of the way markets function, has been based on the assumption that economic power lies with those who control the supply of scarce commodities. Competition law has, for this reason, been designed to protect consumers by preventing companies from taking undue advantage of their ability to control such products. But this economic model, based on market share and concentration that competition authorities have traditionally used to regulate industry, is becoming increasingly irrelevant today—particularly when they try to apply it to the modern technology world.

Drones to the rescue

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Rwanda changed its laws to allow drone deliveries of blood from blood banks to remote areas. On the other hand, India that is known for its jugaad in innovation has introduced laws that have stifled innovation in drones.

A majority of the 11 million citizens of Rwanda live outside the capital Kigali in areas so remote that getting there by road is a nightmare. Access to most of the nearly 500 health centres and district hospitals outside the capital requires you to drive down unpaved roads, through rugged, hilly terrain made all the more impassable by the twice-yearly rains. Consequently, one of the biggest challenges hospitals in remote locations have to contend with is being able to get blood when they need it.

Privacy and household finance

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The RBI Committee on Household Finance recommends the use of fintech to build the customisable, scalable solutions we need to benefit households.

On the very same day that the Supreme Court pronounced its landmark judgement on the fundamental right to privacy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with much less fanfare, released the report of its committee on household finance. While not exactly light reading, the report is remarkable for the depth of its comparative analysis and the modern technological solutions it recommends and even if the subject matter lacks some of the visceral appeal as the Supreme Court judgement, its contents are, nonetheless, enlightening.

The Good and the Bad of the Privacy Ruling

Sat, 26 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Supreme Court of India’s decision in Puttuswamy v. Union of India affirmed the fundamental right to privacy, resolving inconsistencies in previous rulings. While the judgment is celebrated for its nuance, I am concerned that the consent-based framework might hinder the benefits of modern technology.

One of the pleasures of being a lawyer in a vibrant common law jurisdiction is that every once in a while the system spits out a decision so artfully crafted and filled with nuance and meaning that it is a sheer joy to read. Few decisions in recent memory are better exemplars of this than the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Puttuswamy v. Union of India, affirming the fundamental right to privacy.

Breaking Down Data Silos

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Individuals generate vast amounts of medical data through various healthcare interactions and personal devices. Machine learning can unlock proactive diagnoses, but current data silos and over-protective attitudes hinder access and sharing. A proposed electronic data request framework in India aims to place control with the data subject, enabling personal analysis and broader applications, such as credit-worthiness assessments.

In the course of our lives we visit many doctors. We go to the neighbourhood general practitioner for simple ailments, trusting their experience to either cure us of our minor diseases or point us in the direction of experts. For more specific problems or where we know we have a recurring condition, we go to specialists—and when we intuitively know that the situation is critical, we get ourselves admitted into a hospital.

Needed: A Fact Rank Algorithm to Flag Fake News

Sat, 19 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Historically, false news has influenced major events, from anti-Semitic libels to the Spanish-American War. With the rise of social media, exposure to unregulated, biased news has increased, exploiting human tendencies like implicit and confirmation biases. This creates echo chambers, reinforcing beliefs without exposure to differing views. The evolution of fake news now includes realistic audio and potential video fabrications. Addressing this, technology, not regulation, might offer solutions, such as a “FactRank” algorithm to assess news accuracy, akin to Google’s PageRank for search results.

The robots are taking our jobs

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Luddite movement, originating in the late 1700s with Ned Ludham’s act of industrial defiance, evolved into a labor movement focused on collective bargaining rather than a blanket opposition to technology. Today, as technological advancements rapidly replace human jobs, society faces the prospect of a post-work future. This shift challenges traditional notions of work’s role in providing income and purpose, potentially leading to a society sustained by systems like Universal Basic Income and a reevaluation of life’s meaning beyond work.

A New Hope for Personal Privacy

Sat, 12 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We rely on technology for daily tasks - from timely reminders to personalized entertainment suggestions. While this personalization offers convenience and informed decision-making, it raises privacy concerns. The proposed privacy law shifts responsibility from individual consent to data controllers, ensuring no harm from data processing. This includes financial, reputational, or choice-related harms, especially from biased machine learning algorithms. The law suggests regular data audits by learned intermediaries, moving towards privacy compliance through incentives rather than penalties.

Augmented Reality

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Augmented Reality (AR) is poised to transform our interaction with the world, from aiding emergency services and simplifying navigation to enriching personal experiences with real-time information overlays. However, when combined with facial recognition, AR could profoundly impact social interactions and privacy, offering real-time behavioral insights and emotional transparency, necessitating a reevaluation of privacy norms.

For years we’ve heard of the promise that an augmented reality, or AR, future will offer us. We’ve played games like Ingress and Pokemon Go that have, in stages, overlaid an alternative reality on the world around us, providing us new ways in which to enjoy our surroundings. We were given tantalizing glimpses of what Google Glass might make possible with its ability to overlay data in real time over what we can see in front of us, but it is only now, as major mobile platforms announce operating-system-level augmented reality toolkits for app developers, that it seems as if that AR is finally on the verge of going mainstream.

Path to Self Improvement

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Darwin’s theory of natural selection inspired Francis Galton to propose eugenics, the idea that selective breeding could enhance human traits. This concept gained traction in the early 20th century, leading to sterilization laws in the U.S. and Nazi Germany’s racial hygiene program. These ideas eventually culminated in the Holocaust, where six million Jews were killed. Today, the potential of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to alter genes offers a new frontier in genetics, with the lessons of the past serving as a cautionary reminder.

A la Carte Medicine

Wed, 12 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Dengue, that affects millions annually, may be mitigated by using Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes. This approach, along with fecal microbiota transplants for C-diff infections, underscores a shift towards microbiome-focused therapies. Future medicine may rely on synthetic biology for precise, customized treatments, challenging current regulatory frameworks.

Dengue afflicts close to 400 million people a year. As much as one-third of the population of the world is at risk of contracting the disease. There are no vaccines for the disease and the most effective remedy seems to be to simply avoid being bitten by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

The Highway Ban

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Supreme Court of India’s ban on liquor sales along highways led to the closure of bars and pubs on Bengaluru’s MG Road and Brigade Road, mistakenly identified as part of NH-4 and NH-7. The excise department’s order, based on outdated map information, ignored the city’s changed highway network, reflecting a broader issue with government map coordination. The Supreme Court later clarified that the ban should not.

Anyone who has visited Bengaluru, even if just for one night, will know that MG Road and Brigade Road constitute the beating heart of the city’s night life. Along these roads—and those that connect to them and spill off from them in all directions—are located over 300 establishments that support the vibrant night life of India’s pub city. This includes five star hotels, micro-breweries, restaurants, pubs and bars of varying description.

The Future of Ownership

Wed, 28 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The shift from private ownership to shared access, particularly in the automobile industry has been remarkable. With the rise of ride-hailing apps and potential for autonomous vehicles, the emphasis on owning a car is diminishing, especially in India, where the culture of vehicle ownership is less ingrained.

Private ownership of property is a relatively recent phenomenon. Tribal societies were built around the concept of the commons—they had no need to establish private rights of ownership over land. The transition from hunter-gatherers to agricultural societies did little to shake these deeply ingrained notions of communal ownership and with the creation of the nation-state, the notion of common ownership simply metamorphosed into the concept of sovereignty. It was only when citizens rebelled against the idea that the monarch had a divine right to their land that the modern concept of the ownership of property began to crystallize.

Blockchain Land Records

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Real estate transactions in India are complex due to difficulties in confirming property titles. The Torrens system, offering indefeasible title guarantees, could revolutionize this, as seen in Rajasthan’s new legislation. Implementing blockchain technology for land records could ensure tamper-proof, transparent, and efficient property transactions, modernizing the archaic system.

Dealing in real estate in India is hard. According to the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey, India ranks 138th in the world in difficulty in registering property. But we don’t need an international survey to tell us this. As anyone who has transacted with property in India will testify, everything to do with transferring interest or title in real estate, be it something as simple as leasing a flat or as complex as developing a commercial project across multiple land parcels, is complicated and mired in intricacy and uncertainty.

Path Dependence

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to slow down typing to prevent mechanical jams. This design has persisted despite alternatives that could improve typing speeds. Path dependence like this is reflected in the legislative process in India, where outdated laws still govern modern technology. We need to break free from path dependence, especially in the context of enacting a new privacy law, to create regulations that are responsive to modern technology.

Cutting out the Middleman

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Music’s evolution from live performances to digital streaming has been shaped by technology, expanding audience reach but often at the cost of artist revenue. With the advent of blockchain-based services like Musicoin, artists can now bypass traditional intermediaries, offering direct access to their music and potentially transforming the industry’s revenue model.

For almost all of history, the only way you could enjoy music was live and in person. Artists performed for small audiences—their art only capable of travelling as far as their feet could carry them. Since music had to be performed live, it could only be heard by those within earshot.

Perfect Price Discrimination

Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The marketplace has always been a battleground between buyers and sellers. With industrialization, sellers gained an information advantage, leading governments to implement regulations like maximum retail price (MRP) to protect consumers. E-commerce has shifted the balance, offering consumers more price transparency and forcing sellers to adapt. Online shopping leaves a digital trail, allowing sellers to gain insights into consumer behavior and price sensitivity. Sophisticated algorithms are now being developed to achieve “perfect price discrimination,” where each buyer pays exactly what they perceive a product is worth. In this new paradigm, traditional concepts like MRP may become redundant.

When Algorithms Learn to Recognise You

Wed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If the use of biometrics like fingerprints and iris scans for identity raises concerns about personal privacy, facial recognition poses a far greater threat. Unlike other biometrics, faces are easily captured, and the lack of regulation and rapid advancement of technology expose individuals to the risk of active surveillance.

One of the concerns around the use of biometrics for identity is the fear that since they represent physical features that are unique to each of us, their misuse represents a threat to personal privacy. As a result we are instinctively reluctant to trust something so personal into the hands of the government for fear that if, due to a failure of state capacity, this information is compromised, it will cause us irremediable harm. If biometrics are going to be the key to our digital identities, there is an apprehension that criminal elements who figure out how to get their hands on them will be able to steal our identity.

Aadhaar: The Fine Balance between Identity and Anonymity

Wed, 17 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

the-fine-balance-between-identity-and-anonymity/ categories: “articles” modified: 2026-01-06T12:37 writingStatus: published publication: Ex Machina created: 2023-04-22T10:17

In “Homo Deus”, Yuval Noah Harari suggests that Homo sapiens’ success is due to our unique ability to believe in myths, like nation-states, which unite individuals under a common identity. This concept is crucial in modern society, where identity systems like India’s Aadhaar balance social responsibilities with personal privacy, highlighting the need for privacy laws to maintain this equilibrium.

The Myth of the Average Man

Wed, 10 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We need to question the concept of “average” human medical standards, such as body temperature given the extent of the individual variations in human biology. There is a need for personalized medical treatment particularly when one considers how wearable technologies could revolutionize healthcare by enabling continuous monitoring and customized care.

Carl Wunderlich, the medical director of the hospital at the University of Leipzig in the 1850s, is credited with establishing that most fundamental of medical standards—the normal human body temperature. To do this, Wunderlich examined over 25,000 patients in the hospital and concluded that the normal temperature of the human body is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Ever since then, the number 98.6 has been used as a primary indicator of physical health, any variation being seen as evidence that the body is fighting a disease.

The Morality of Technology

Wed, 03 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Technology is inherently neutral but depending on how it is used it can be either good or bad. This applies to gene editing, drones and even to identity.

Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be. Outside of its domain, value judgments of all kinds remain necessary.

—Albert Einstein

Some technologies have an implicit morality. Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), for instance, are quite obviously engineered to kill. While it is conceivable that they could be redeployed for a more benign purpose (science fiction tropes suggest that they can be used to destroy meteors headed towards earth), there is little doubt that their primary purpose is malevolent.

The Ethics of Persuasion

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In the “attention economy,” businesses compete for user attention through persuasive technologies, leading to a potential technological addiction. There is a need for ethical boundaries in app design that will call for major tech companies agreeing to rewrite rules to discourage addictive persuasion, and aim for a more sustainable approach.

Soon after the internet gave us always-on access to an unprecedented volume of information, it became clear that it was not going to be possible for us to consume all the data that we now had access to. As a result, we became grazers of content, skipping from one site to another—stopping for only as long as it takes for our attention to be diverted by the next shiny thing online. For businesses that depend on advertising revenue and measure their performance with metrics like “time-on-site" and “7-day-actives", this was a serious problem as every user distracted away from the site is a user lost. It soon became evident that the most valuable commodity of the digital economy is attention.

The Great Manure Crisis of 1894

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In the 19th century, London faced the Great Manure Crisis, a seemingly insurmountable urban catastrophe. The advent of automobiles resolved the issue within a decade. Might we dare to imaging that the global pollution crisis, might have a similar, as yet unknown technological solutions?

In the 19th century, London was the centre of the civilized world. As the beating heart of the British Empire, it was a magnet for immigrants and over the course of that century, its population grew from just over a million people in 1800 to close to 7 million at the turn of the century. And as a result, London became one of the largest cities on the planet—and humanity’s first real taste of urbanization.

The End of Life

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

There are ethical and legal complexities with treating terminally ill patients in India. There is a thin and grey line between palliative care and assisted suicide. We need clear legislation regarding living wills and the right to die with dignity.

As regular readers of this column might have already gathered, I am bullish on the future of medicine. Advances in DNA sequencing, a better understanding of the gut biome and the ability to monitor ourselves 24x7 using wearable devices has allowed us a better understanding of the workings of the human body. But despite the hope these advances hold out for the future, there are still vast empty spaces in our knowledge. Cancer and other terminal illnesses are an uncomfortable reminder of the amount we have still to learn about the way our bodies function and how to fix them when they fail.

The Movement of Ideas

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

There are parallels to be drawn between Martin Luther’s use of printing technology and modern communication technologies. Technology has historically accelerated the dissemination of ideas and we need to adapt that understanding to new mediums like the internet.

On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther, at the time a relatively unknown German theologian, nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg, a Latin treatise entitled 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, in which he excoriated the Catholic Church for trying to convince gullible believers that they could save themselves from purgatory by buying indulgences. This simple act set in motion a series of events that led to the Reformation, a religious movement that reverberated throughout Europe and eventually split Christianity into two.

A New Paradigm for Privacy

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian government’s recent mandate to link Aadhaar numbers with tax returns and mobile numbers highlights the urgent need for a privacy law. Current proposals suggest a law based on OECD principles, emphasizing consent. However, given the complexity of data use today, the responsibility should shift from individual consent to holding data controllers accountable, ensuring fair and non-discriminatory data processing. India has the chance to create a forward-thinking privacy framework suitable for today’s data-intensive world.

Insuring Previvors

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The story of chess and rice illustrates exponential growth, paralleled in technology and genetics. Moore’s Law on computing power doubling every two years has led to advanced AI, machine learning, and virtual reality. Similarly, rapid advancements in genetics, outpacing Moore’s Law, are revolutionizing disease diagnosis and treatment, potentially transforming industries like insurance by redefining pre-existing conditions.

Legend has it that the inventor of chess asked for some rice as his reward for coming up with the game. To be precise, he asked the king to place a single grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, two on the next, four on the one following that—doubling the preceding number on each subsequent square of the chessboard. Things proceeded uneventfully for the first 32 squares and, even though he had accumulated over 4 billion grains of rice, that number only represents the rice contained in a large field.

Collaborative AI

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When we harness network effects we can foster novel forms of collaboration. Can we apply these ideas to the modern law firm to improve on existing business models?

One of the more challenging issues in law firm management is determining the ideal partner compensation model that maximizes profit while at the same time fosters collaboration. It seems, intuitively, that partners should be paid based on the revenue they bring in. While financially fair, this eat-what-you-kill structure is unforgiving of the vagaries of business and the impact that circumstance can have on a lawyer’s ability to generate revenue. It is also remarkably divisive, making partners compete with others in the firm for work—in extreme cases, making them think twice about referring matters to more qualified colleagues just because they need to boost their own revenues.

FOMO and the Law

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Lawmaking, fraught with the challenge of foreseeing unintended consequences, often leads to statutes filled with broad, catch-all provisions. These residuary clauses, while providing regulatory flexibility, create uncertainty and potential for overreach. The Other Service Providers (OSPs) regulations in telecom exemplify this, with vague definitions extending regulatory reach to unintended sectors. Precise, purpose-built legislation is advocated over open-ended definitions to avoid such regulatory ambiguities.

Lawmaking is an unenviable job. It requires clarity of vision and outcome and the instinct to be able to identify and pre-empt unintended consequences of unfortunately phrased provisions. And, since it is practically impossible to foresee the many ways in which the laws we draft will be put to the test, it is, for the most part, a thankless enterprise.

Uberisation of National Transport

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Early e-commerce companies in India had to create their own infrastructure, leading to the development of advanced logistics services within cities. However, inter-state transport has not seen the same technological transformation, largely due to regulatory constraints. Revisiting these regulations could lead to significant improvements in the national transportation infrastructure.

Early e-commerce companies struggled in India, not so much because they had to build a market for their services, but because India didn’t offer them the kind of robust infrastructure that they needed to support their business. The fact that e-commerce has, today, insinuated itself into so many aspects of our lives is a tribute to the efforts of those pioneers in building, from scratch, an ecosystem of ancillary services where none existed before.

GPS is a Time Machine

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In a world rejecting globalization, the critical role of synchronized time, essential for modern civilization, is often overlooked. Medieval Europe’s independent timekeeping evolved with industrialization, requiring precise coordination. Today, technologies like mobile networks, electricity grids, and GPS rely on exact time synchronization. GPS, a US Department of Defense system, underpins these technologies, highlighting the interconnectedness of global systems amidst rising nationalism.

Last year the world turned in on itself. From Brexit to the US election, countries around the world rejected globalization and chose to focus on themselves and their own. But globalization isn’t something you can turn off at will—at least not without altering the fabric of modern civilization. We are, today, more dependent on each other than ever before and any attempt to move further apart will literally set us back decades.

Colluding Algorithms

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Auto rickshaw drivers often charge more than the metered fare in response to market dynamics, similar to surge pricing in ride-hailing apps. This raises competition law concerns, as algorithm-driven pricing could lead to unintentional collusion, setting higher equilibrium prices. The challenge for regulators is to adapt antitrust laws to address potential collusion by autonomous algorithms, which can independently develop strategies for profit maximization, including tacit collusion, without overt intent or agreement.

Regulatory Sandbox

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian government’s approach to using imprecise language in law-making - particularly in technology regulation - can lead to unintended consequences. If we can use regulatory “sandboxes” to safely test new technologies to be tested within controlled environments it would foster innovation and create more precise and effective regulations.

One of my personal peeves—and I have been vocal about it in this column—is our government’s sometimes casual attitude to law-making. Far too often have we found ourselves having to deal with the unintended consequences of lazy legislation built on poorly chosen words applied without thinking through the implications of their syntax. Nowhere is this more acutely evident than in the context of technology regulation where rapidly changing technology makes the consequences of lax drafting all the more potent.

Rare Diseases: Orphan Drugs

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Those with rare diseases face tremendous challenges given that pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to produce the necessary drugs, and the high costs often make treatment unaffordable. Karnataka became the first state to release a Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs Policy, recommending preventive testing, education, tax breaks, and insurance coverage for rare diseases. If other states follow suit, it could offer hope for those like Mohammed to lead longer and more dignified lives.

Big Bad Data

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Statistician Fredrick Hoffman, known for identifying health risks like asbestos and tobacco, is also remembered for his flawed 1896 study claiming African Americans were inherently sicker than whites. This study, influenced by prejudice, had lasting negative impacts. As we increasingly rely on data and predictive algorithms, it’s crucial to avoid such biases and ensure fair, accurate interpretations to prevent perpetuating discrimination and injustice.

Fredrick Hoffman was a statistician employed by the Prudential Life Insurance company tasked with uncovering risk patterns in medical data. So good was he at his job that even though he had no medical training, he managed to uncover the harmful side-effects of asbestos, identify silicosis as a real disease that was causing fatalities among American workers and establish the causal relationship between smoking tobacco and lung cancer. By the time he died in 1946, he had 28 books and nearly 1,200 published articles to his credit.

The Everest Spheroid

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Indian government insists on using the Everest Spheroid as the reference datum for its maps, citing greater accuracy and military significance. However, with the development of the World Geodetic System, which uses the Earth’s center of mass, the government’s insistence on surface reference mapping and restrictions on map exportation appears outdated and unnecessary.

I have always been perplexed by the vigour with which the Indian government (and in particular its defence establishment) insists that map data should not leave the country. Whenever I’ve spoken with people in the government about this, they have argued that the Government of India (GoI) maps are significantly more locationally accurate than those derived from satellite imagery because they have been prepared using the Everest Spheroid as the reference datum. They insist that it is only those maps of India that have been prepared using this unique framework that are capable of pinpointing with any degree of useful accuracy the location of a given point in India in relation to any other. This is why the GoI still takes pains to ensure that GOI maps don’t fall into the hands of enemy nations and why it has imposed a blanket ban on the movement of maps and all sorts of map data out of the country.

Digital Inclusion for the 85%

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

2016 was a transformative year, marked by the e-commerce sector’s challenges following the Indian government’s Press Note 3. This led to innovative business models and growth in related industries like logistics and warehousing. The year also saw Aadhaar enrolment surpass 1 billion, laying the foundation for India’s digital transformation. The introduction of India Stack, particularly the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), revolutionized digital payments. However, the focus shifted towards including the larger, underserved population in the digital economy, highlighting the need for a balanced policy framework that respects privacy while leveraging data-driven decision-making.

Ready for the day the Machines Take Over

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

As cognitive machines begin to take over human decision-making functions, there is an urgent need to redesign education to promote creative thought and problem-solving. Without these changes, the next generation may be ill-equipped to stay ahead of the machines, risking being overwhelmed by technological advancements.

When the first Industrial Revolution introduced the world to machines that were capable of producing goods faster and with greater efficiency than human muscles could hope to do, it destroyed forever, centuries worth of handcraft traditions. Within a decade, whole cohorts of weavers, leather workers, carpenters and the like were rendered jobless, forced, for their own survival, to re-skill themselves as workers on the shop floors of the very factories that had replaced them. The same story repeated itself during the second Industrial Revolution which created new industries and redistributed economic power to manufacturing facilities that hadn’t existed before. The third and most recent Industrial Revolution introduced computers and digital technologies to the mix, removing the political boundaries between marketplaces. For the first time, companies were freed of geopolitical constraints and could procure services from wherever they could be most efficiently delivered.

Cutting the Code with CRISPR

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

CRISPR-Cas9 is a gene-editing breakthrough that promises cures for genetic diseases but raises ethical concerns about creating “designer babies” and potential misuse. While some advocate for a moratorium on germ-line modifications, others argue for its therapeutic potential, especially in eradicating devastating genetic disorders like Tay-Sachs.

On 28 June 2012, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier published a paper in Science magazine describing CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary new gene-editing technique that makes it cheap and easy for anyone with a basic knowledge of molecular biology to directly edit DNA. Given that there are close to 6,000 diseases we know are caused, at least in part, due to genetic errors—missing or garbled sequences of DNA that result in the inability to correctly synthesize a specific protein—a tool like this will allow us to find cures for these ills by directly altering the genetic code.

Its Time for Coveillance

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Privacy is an aberration from the mutual surveillance (coveillance) society that we have always been a part of. With greater tensions being felt between new technologies and the need for greater privacy the solution is to embrace coveillance so that we can reduce the information asymmetry between the watcher and the watched.

Humans have always lived in groups. We learned, early on, that by living in close proximity we could watch out for each other and greatly improve our odds against predators. Cramped as the living arrangement must have been, it offered the sort of security to the entire tribe that would have been impossible had individuals lived alone. Not only was privacy unheard of, it was an undesirable state of existence that denied the individual the strength of the collective.

The New Imperialists

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Europe supplanted Asian dominance in the 1700s, thanks to the European discovery of ignorance and its subsequent pursuit of knowledge. There are parallels between this and today’s technological revolution, where virtual networks and global corporations have created a new form of influence, that are a modern form of colonization.

In the 1700s, the Ottoman Empire ruled in Persia, the Mughal Empire ruled over most of India and the Ming and Qing Dynasties ruled over most of China. Asia accounted for over 80% of global trade and the economies of its two largest countries—India and China—together contributed to two thirds of global production. Yet, despite the advantages of economic wealth, military strength and a long history of scientific accomplishments, in the course of two short centuries, Europeans penetrated every corner of the globe—from the west coast of South America to the Japanese islands and the Chinese mainland—completely supplanting Asian dominance.

The Rise of the Machines

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

We should regulate autonomous weapons like we govern nuclear non-proliferation and climate change - through international consensus and not national policy. If we build machine intelligence that can decide who to kill this technology we will not be able to control whose hands this gets into.

When IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer defeated him in a six-match tournament, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov was not entirely surprised. The battle between humans and computers has always been about processing speed and the moment computers attained the computational power necessary to see seven moves out, it was inevitable that they would wear humans down with the sheer brute force of their infallibility. And once they got there, even human intuition was no match for the sheer analytical prowess of a computer.

Regtech Will Change the Way We Regulate

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Since the 2008 financial crisis, increased regulatory measures have led to higher compliance costs for financial institutions. Many banks’ legacy systems are struggling with these demands. Emerging RegTech start-ups are addressing this by using modern cloud-based technologies to simplify compliance. This field promises to transform regulation through efficient data processing, real-time API-driven compliance, and a shift from prescriptive legislation to principle-based algorithms.

Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, regulators around the world have been working to close the loopholes that gave rise to it. The financial services industry has, as a consequence, had to deal with a steep increase in compliance costs, and to dedicate an escalating amount of resources and bandwidth to ensure effective compliance.

Quantified Self

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Wearable devices are increasingly common, tracking various physical activities and even finding their way into legal evidence. The future of medicine may lie in this quantified personal measurement, allowing for customized treatment tailored to individual patients. However, to reach this future, changes to regulatory frameworks and a rethinking of privacy notions are needed to allow for more patient-centric medical treatment and algorithmic diagnosis.

Rachel Kalmar is a Stanford PhD in neuroscience who also happens to hold the world record for the most number of wearable sensors worn continuously. When you meet her, your eyes are immediately drawn to the dozen different sensors strapped to her forearm, attached to her belt and hanging around her neck. For the last three years, Rachel has worn between 10 and 30 sensors on her body every day and has collected data from these devices to better understand issues relating to data access and interoperability.

The Remix Generation

Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The Delhi high court’s decision allowing photocopying of textbooks for educational purposes has been praised for its modern interpretation of copyright law. The ruling emphasizes the need to adapt copyright law to contemporary realities, including the rise of digital content and remix culture, where traditional copyright may hinder creativity.

The Delhi high court decision allowing a Delhi University shop to sell photocopies of textbooks and court material has been praised as one of the most beautiful expositions on the law of copyright as it applies to fair use in educational works. Much has been written about the impact that this judgement will have on the publishing industry—and in particular on scholarly writing. Students and universities have loudly acclaimed the verdict while publishers claim to have lost all incentive to publish academic works now that the education exception allows students to photocopy textbooks indiscriminately.

A Database of our Maladies

Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

India has the potential to use data innovatively for enhancing healthcare outcomes. However, it’s crucial to balance patient privacy with public good, defining clear grounds for data access and stringent punishments for misuse. The draft EHR legislation suggests patients “own” their medical data, but a nuanced approach focusing on access and control is needed. India has a unique opportunity to leverage technology for healthcare, but must strike the right balance between personal privacy and public good.

Algorithmic Oversight

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Social media news algorithms represent the future of news dissemination. However, the need for personalization, driven by advertising revenue, creates ‘filter bubbles’, limiting our exposure to a diversity of information sources. We need to implement software oversight: open-source algorithms auditing newsfeeds for bias, maintaining algorithm secrecy while ensuring objectivity.

Sometime back, I wrote about social media and the new face of journalism. I argued that social media platforms should be entitled to the privileges of the Fourth Estate to ensure that its ability to deliver news to an algorithmically relevant audience is not stifled due to the absence of liability protection. Over the course of the past few weeks, however, the integrity of social media news algorithms have been called into question, denting, somewhat, my thesis that these algorithm-driven news feeds represent the future of news dissemination.

The Artist and his Audience

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The history of copyright reflects the struggle of artists to reach audiences, from direct personal interfaces to the printing press and the Internet. Despite the symbiotic relationship between artists and publishers, the Internet has allowed artists to directly access audiences. Recent amendments to India’s Copyright Act and government clarifications have further extended the scope to Internet broadcasting companies, potentially unlocking vast music catalogues, though the direct benefit to artists remains unclear.

Data is a Capital Asset

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Data is a critical capital asset, driving major business transformations. Industries from retail to transportation are adopting data-driven strategies, with sensor technology and analytics optimizing performance and service. Governments are recognizing data’s value in smart city development and predictive policing, suggesting a future where data not only informs decisions but also automates regulatory compliance, potentially revolutionizing governance and business operations.

Data has already assumed the status of a capital asset—integral to the operations of all businesses and, in many ways, as important to them as financial and human capital.

Can we do without Cash

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Despite the potential benefits of digital payments, its widespread adoption in India is faced with numerous challenges. The real bottleneck is merchant acceptance, hindered by transaction costs and lack of infrastructure. The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) offers hope, integrating with Aadhaar for secure transactions and potentially lower costs, but success hinges on merchant adoption and regulatory support, shifting focus from consumer to merchant-centric solutions.

It is hard to overstate the benefits of digital payments and the extent to which a widely deployed electronic payments system will affect the Indian economy. Apart from the obvious impact on corruption and the parallel economy, as more and more enterprises begin to integrate digital payments into their business, the resulting transparency will change the way we think about regulation and compliance. Done right, a full transition to a digital payments economy will rebuild the reputation of the Indian legal system as being consistent and predictable.

The Evolution of Identity

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

With the introduction of Aadhaar, the concept of anonymity on the Internet has been diminishing in India. While this shift has benefits, it contrasts with the continued presence of anonymous trolls online. Embracing verified accounts could restore normalcy and trust on the Internet.

For as long as I can remember, the most celebrated feature of the Internet has been its anonymity. We have always been told that we can say and do whatever we want on the Internet, without fear of reprisal because its decentralized architecture guarantees anonymity. This is the reason why it is virtually impossible to destroy free speech on the Internet. As a result, at least for those of us who have been online for a while, it has become almost second nature to treat privacy as our last line of defence against the apocalypse of stolen identity and data breach.

Where Did Our Map Regulations Come From

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

India’s map regulations impose restrictions on the cross-border transfer of maps or map data - despite the global shift to cloud-based consumption. I investigate the origins of these arcane regulations to try and figure out how they came about and what can be done to set it right.

One of the more frustrating aspects of being a technology lawyer in India is having to explain India’s medieval map regulations to clients. India insists on imposing physical restrictions on the movement of maps, oblivious to the fact that the entire world consumes maps over the cloud. Map businesses struggle to modify their service models to deal with this and, more often than not, find themselves overstepping the line.

Lazy Legislation

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

While Press Note 3 of 2016, was supposed to liberalise FDI in e-commerce in India, it is filled with contradictory provisions and unclear definitions - particularly regarding the inclusion of service and digital product sales in e-commerce. It is, in fact, a step back and is reflective of the fact that the government’s understanding of technology and its impact is inadequate. Effective regulation in the Network Age requires precise, flexible legislation, understanding network patterns, and a non-linear approach to policy formulation.

From Ownership to Access

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Consumption is one of the cornerstones of capitalism and modern society actively encourages it. Planned obsolescence feeds this philosophy by making a placing time limits on technology to make it stop functioning so that replacements can be purchased. If we prioritise access over ownership utilization will increase and products will no longer have to be made obsolete to encourage greater consumption.

In the garage of a fire department in Livermore, San Francisco, there’s a bulb that was switched on in 1901 and has been burning ever since. With over a million hours of continuous service, it is, officially, the longest lasting incandescent in history. In an age where even the best quality light bulbs don’t last more than a couple of months with continuous use, the Livermore light bulb is the stuff of urban legend. But as I dug deeper into the mythology, it became clear to me that this quaint anachronism hides a fantastic tale of cartelization and corporate intrigue that’s left a mark on the technology industry of today.

Using Tech to Ensure Data Symmetry

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The Internet and modern technologies have reduced information asymmetry in markets. With the abundance of data available today, can technology can replace regulations, ensuring data symmetry and achieving “minimum governance?”

George Akerlof’s classic 1970s paper The Market for Lemons introduced the world to the threat that asymmetric information poses to market economics. Taking the used car business as an example, he argued that since buyers of used cars will only pay the average price quoted for cars of a particular vintage, there is no incentive for sellers to place the cars in the market if they know that the value of their car is higher than the average. Since sellers have better information about their cars than buyers, sellers with good cars will always stay out of the market. This will drive the average price of the market ever southwards until eventually the market will be populated, solely, by sellers of lemons.

The New News

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There is a transformation in the dissemination of news now that it takes place through social media platforms and smartphones. As a result user-generated content has started to shape modern journalism. As a result there is a shift in the role of social media companies that raises new questions about the protection and support for this new form of citizen journalism.

It’s been a trying couple of weeks in the news. First there was the shooting of Alton Sterling that was somehow made more gritty and real on the grainy cellphone video recording of a bystander. The very next day I watched, along with the rest of the world, as Philando Castile breathed his last while his girlfriend live-streamed his dying moments on Facebook.

Blockchain Governance

Wed, 13 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Bitcoin’s distributed ledger technology offers a solution to the trust issue in online transactions, eliminating the need for intermediaries in e-commerce. This blockchain concept can extend beyond currency, revolutionizing contracts, intellectual property rights, and public records by ensuring tamper-resistant, verifiable transactions. Governments could adopt this technology for more efficient, accountable public services, as seen in Rajasthan’s state-guaranteed land titles, potentially paving the way for blockchain governance.

One of the challenges of doing business on the Internet is that it is so hard to know who you are transacting with. Pure Internet trades take place between parties who don’t know and cannot, therefore, trust each other. Which means that every time you buy a product online, you have no guarantee that the person you are paying hasn’t already sold the product to someone else.

The Demise of the Artisanal Lawyer

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The University of Oxford’s study revealed that 47% of jobs today could be replaced by computers, including cognitive and evaluative roles. While lawyers have a low risk of displacement, paralegals and legal assistants face a 94% chance of being replaced. The rise of AI in law could disrupt traditional apprenticeship models and requires the legal industry to reorganize before technology claims their livelihood.

Last year, the University of Oxford published a study on the effects of technology on employment. Among the more disconcerting findings of the report was the revelation that, on average, 47% of all jobs today are likely to be replaced by computers. The report cited a widening gap between productivity and pay, indicating that ordinary workers are increasingly unable to keep up with the rate of technological change—their skills constantly being made redundant by new computer technologies.

Consent is Dead

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The consent-based model of data protection is outdated and ineffective in the modern, interconnected world. We need to shift from focusing on obtaining consent to holding organizations accountable for the data they control. India, lacking a formal privacy law, has a unique opportunity to develop a modern privacy law centered on accountability, which could serve as a model for the rest of the world.

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t meet someone who is looking to build a business that seeks to either leverage the Aadhaar infrastructure or otherwise looks to tap the vast volumes of personal data available online today. Early on in those meetings, the discussion moves to the privacy impact of the business. Which is when the conversation flounders.

005. Drones Should be Regulated by City Traffic Laws not Aviation Regulations

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Drones are likely to be flown in urban areas and so instead of being regulated by the DGCA they should be regulated by the police that can address the traffic management and privacy violation issues that are likely to be the consequence of their use.

The remarkable growth of quadcopter drones can be directly attributed to our near-insatiable demand to pack more and more features into our mobile phones. Thanks to the “smartphone wars", tiny accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS and wireless communication units have become widely available, at price points that are constantly falling.

The Ethics of Automation

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

We need to develop the ethical frameworks within which vehicle manufacturers should operate or else they will ensure that the parameters on which autonomous vehicles are regulated serve their own interests. Autonomous vehicles should not have to comply with laws designed for vehicles are driven by humans.

All of a sudden, so many of our appliances—televisions, coffee machines, bathroom scales, light bulbs—have grown smart and integrated themselves into an enormous hive-mind that miraculously keeps us fit, our home temperatures controlled and our lives organised. It seems we are on the threshold of a new age, but even at this early stage, the enormous strains that this fundamental technological shift will place on the world, are already becoming visible. We are struggling to deal with the vast amounts of data that our personal devices collect and its impact on privacy. If you layer on top of that, artificial intelligence and machines that are empowered to make our choices for us, the real impact increases exponentially.

Trusting the Sharing Economy

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Trust identity based on dual feedback loops loops could create better commercial incentives than regulations.

The crackdown by the Karnataka government on taxi aggregators Ola and Uber has caused considerable consternation in print and social media. However, this type of government action is nothing new for the sharing economy. Almost from the moment on-demand services began operations, governments around the world have literally fallen over themselves to regulate them—egged on, for the most part, by lobbies comprising the same mainstream industries that these start-ups were working to disrupt. These “threatened" industries argued that while they are obliged to comply with industry regulations, these new disruptive industries were providing the same service without complying with regulatory requirements.

What the New Geospatial Bill Means for You

Wed, 11 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Our map ecosystem has only flourished because even though the government is strict in legislation it is indulgent in enforcement.

I’ve been quite amused to listen to the raucous chorus of dissent that has accompanied the publication of the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill. Yet, despite the gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts, there isn’t much in the Geospatial Bill that is new. The requirement for all newly acquired map information to be vetted by security agencies is a reality Indian map companies made their uneasy peace with over a decade ago—they regularly submit upgrades to their map dataset to the ministry of defence before releasing them to their consumers.

The Stiff Backbone of the Aadhaar Bill

Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The Aadhaar Act imposes on the government, some of the strongest fetters on executive over-reach of any legislation in the country.

When the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) introduced the Aadhaar Bill in Parliament late last week, it looked like the government was trying to latch the stable door a few years after the horse had bolted. This is 2016. We are approaching the one billion-mark in number of Aadhaar cards issued. Passing an enabling legislation now is a bit like planning a coronation to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the Queen.