UPSC Articles
INTERNATIONAL/ ECONOMY/ GOVERNANCE
Topic:
- GS-2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests.
- GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
Data and A New Global Order
Digital Data Revolution – Strategic Implications
- Military and civilian systems are symbiotic due nature and pervasiveness of digital data
- Cybersecurity is national security, and this requires both a new military doctrine and a diplomatic framework.
- Massive amounts of data generated by people & economic activities give a sustained productivity advantage to Asia.
- Data streams are now at the centre of global trade and countries’ economic and national power.
- India, thus, has the capacity to negotiate new rules as an equal with the U.S. and China.
China and Digital Sector
- Innovation based on data streams has contributed to China’s rise as the second-largest economy and the “near-peer” of the U.S.
- China’s digital technology-led capitalism is moving fast to utilise the economic potential of data, pushing the recently launched e-yuan and shaking the dollar-based settlement for global trade.
- China has a $53-trillion mobile payments market and it is the global leader in the online transactions arena, controlling over 50% of the global market value.
- China formed a joint venture with SWIFT for cross-border payments and suggested foundational principles for interoperability between central bank digital currencies at the Bank for International Settlements.
Dynamics
- With Asia at the centre of the world, major powers see value in relationships with India.
- India fits into the U.S. frame to provide leverage. China wants India, also a digital power, to see it as a partner, not a rival.
- And China remains the largest trading partner of both the U.S. and India despite sanctions and border skirmishes.
- India alone straddles both U.S. and China-led strategic groupings, providing an equity-based perspective to competing visions.
- India must be prepared to play a key role in moulding rules for the hyper-connected world, facing off both the U.S. and China to realise its potential of becoming the second-largest economy.
