What is the issue?
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations are currently underway.
- E-commerce is expected to be an important issue of discussion.
What is the role of digital intelligence in this?
- E-commerce continues to be a misnomer in the discussions.
- What is actually under discussion is placing limitations on digital policymaking by any country in the name of promoting e-commerce.
- Unlike other issues, there is lack of understanding with regards to the real nature of the digital issues involved and the relevant policy requirements.
- There is no single thing as “data” or its global flows to negotiate about.
- Instead, there are different kinds of digital services such as banking, retailing, the defence forces, public services, health and education services, etc.
- Instead of seeing it as a global flow of data, one must see it as a global flow of intelligence.
- So there should be negotiations about digital services in global trade talks.
What is the future of digital intelligence?
- Digital intelligence is going to be by far the single most important economic resource.
- e.g Artificial Intelligence (AI) is recently named as a new factor of production, along with capital and labour.
- Countries will be forced to negotiate economically with other countries that supply most of their AI software.
- Such economic arrangements would reshape today’s geopolitical alliances.
- There is a possibility of every sector getting organised around a very few centres of sectoral digital intelligence resulting in global consolidation in every sector.
What is the way forward?
- India is still lethargic about the current transformations in the IT sector that are taking place along with unprecedented job losses.
- India should track the inflow and outflow of digital intelligence and apprehend the changes in trends.
- Following this India must device a digital industrialisation strategy that ensures that the immense value arising from digitally-induced efficiencies in every sector is retained within India to its advantage.
- This requires an independent digital policy by India to ensure its place in the global platform in future.
- India should keep these developments in mind in negotiations with countries pushing for predatory global digital business.
Source: The Hindu
