Tech research accelerator asks PMO to hold ground on digital sovereignty in US trade talks

The Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT), which has had a major role in promoting Aadhaar and the India Stack (comprising technologies like DigiLocker and FasTAG) in their early days, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to push back on “concessions on source code access, cross-border data flows, open government data, local presence, and prohibitions on digital custom duties,” arguing that these accommodations would undermine India’s “digital sovereignty”. 

A “digital sovereignty law” was needed to “expand Indian capacity” in technology, the letter said. The letter comes in the wake of India’s concessions on access to source code — something foreign firms insist on to protect their proprietary products — and making “open government data” available, in the bilateral trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The letter to the PMO was co-signed by the Science Indigenous Technology & Advanced Research Accelerator (SITARA).

It also comes in the wake of Microsoft’s brief cutting off of Nayara, an Indo-Russian oil refinery in Gujarat, from essential services, citing European Union sanctions. “The Nayara case, where Microsoft and SAP withdrew essential cloud services due to EU sanctions, also illustrates our vulnerability,” the letter said. “Indian courts, lacking the legal framework for holding global digital companies accountable, refused interim relief for Nayara.” (emphasis theirs)

“Earlier, on being summoned by the Supreme Court of India regarding content regulation issues, Google India had deflected responsibility to its US parent … India, with its vast market and rapidly expanding digital economy, cannot allow foreign digital platforms to siphon off Indian data and profits and potentially weaponise it, while hiding behind foreign jurisdictions.”

“When foreign platforms can withdraw cloud services overnight, or when trade agreements propose binding rules on cross-border data flows, algorithms, and digital taxes, the effect is to erode the state’s capacity to govern its own digital economy,” Manav Gudwani, a research fellow looking into technology sovereignty issues at the Bengaluru-based Takshashila Institution told The Hindu. 

“This is not an argument for retreating into self-reliance, but for recognising that sovereignty means retaining the freedom to regulate data, protect critical infrastructure, and shape standards in line with national priorities,” Mr. Gudwani added. “Without that freedom, adoption of digital technologies risks becoming a vector of dependency, where India participates energetically in global networks but has little control over the conditions under which those networks operate.”