New Delhi: India would like to use the presidency of G20 in many ways to reflect the interests and concerns of the global south today as we feel they are being sidelined, said EAM Jaishankar, speaking at the seventh edition of the Global Technology Summit in New Delhi. He noted that the rise of India is deeply linked with the rise of Indian technology and the country has woken up to key questions regarding the processing and harvesting of its data.
The External Affairs Minister also underlined the importance of technology in geopolitics and the emerging world order while speaking here. “We people, especially in India in the last two years, have woken up to the fact, where does our data reside? Who processes and harvests our data and what do they do with it? That is a very very key question,” Jaishnakar said. He further noted that since 2014 there's been a different kind of approach to climate change in terms of our policies, advocacies, and energy mix. "When it comes to climate tech, India has a range of possibilities... There are Indian businesses in climate in COP now," he said.
“Theme picked is timely as technology today is at the heart of geopolitics. You could argue that it was always so, whether it was nuclear, the internet or space, or AI. If you look at quantum jumps in history, parallel with some time-lapse, quantum jumps in technology. It has led to a lot of policy outcomes,” Jaishnakar said. “When we think today of the competitive politics sharper contradictions, I think we should be more and more cognisant that is going to be driven by technology or also be visible or be reflected in the technology debates,” he added.
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Jaishankar also pointed out that India cannot be agnostic about technology, saying that there is a very strong political connotation that is inbuilt into technology. The External Affairs Minister said the globalisation big picture is very much at the heart of geopolitics and it’s a false argument to present it as “either you for globalisation or against globalisation.”
“I think that the right argument is that are you for collaborative globalisation or are you for a globalization model that allows domination by a few players. How flat and broad is your globalization? I think that to my mind is the real debate. And that debate will be very much driven by technology,” he explained.
The Global Technology Summit (GTS) is India’s annual flagship event on Geotechnology, co-hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and Carnegie India, and held annually since 2016. The 7th edition of the GTS will be held from November 29 to December 1 in New Delhi in a hybrid format. The theme for this year’s Summit is ‘Geopolitics of Technology.
Over three days, the World’s leading minds in technology, government, security, space, startups, data, law, public health, climate change, academics and economy will gather and debate the vital questions related to technology and its future: advantages and challenges of technologies, sustainability, emerging geopolitics in the technology domain, data for development and ideas for India’s G20 Presidency.
GTS 2022 will see participation from more than 100 speakers across 50+ panel discussions, keynote addresses, book launches and other events. Ministers and senior government officials from the US, Singapore, Japan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bhutan, the EU, and other countries will also participate in the Summit. More than 5,000 participants from all over the world have registered to attend the Summit.
