2021 Global Technology Summit

Conversation: Enhancing Digital Connectivity: Fostering Tech Partnerships

Strategic tech partnerships are now a major element of any country’s foreign policy and are central to a continuously evolving digital world. However, varied approaches to technological development, and different political and economic priorities threaten the scope of such partnerships. The session will identify areas of collaboration to strengthen such tech partnerships focusing on technical standards, 5G diversification, and technology supply chains, among others.

Keynote: Unified Health Interface (UHI): Partnering for the Future

Health Stack in India was introduced to digitize the health system and make it more transparent and robust. In India, where only 1% of GDP is spent on healthcare, ensuring access to digital healthcare services seems to be a massive challenge. This session will discuss ways in which the UHI can be scaled up domestically and prospects for its export to other countries.

Intervention: Cybersecurity Governance in the Digital Age

The joint statement from the Quad leaders released in September this year mentions collaboration in the cyber space with a pledge to work together to combat cyber threats, promote resilience, and secure critical infrastructure. Recognizing this new avenue of cooperation, the session will provide an opportunity to discuss ways to advance work between government and industry to adopt and implement shared cyber standards, develop secure software, build workforce and talent, and promote the scalability and cybersecurity of secure and trustworthy digital infrastructure.

Panel: Cloud Governance: Tackling Cybersecurity Challenges

For businesses transitioning to cloud, robust security is imperative to protect data, systems, and applications from theft, leakage, corruption, and deletion. The session aims to discuss ways in which practitioners and policymakers can maximize the cybersecurity benefits provided by cloud service providers and minimize the cybersecurity risks.

Ministerial Intervention: Skilling and Inclusion

Panel: AUKUS: Future of Nuclear Non-Proliferation

A new security partnership, AUKUS, with Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States will deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. This represents a significant new strategic development for Asian and global security and has implications for nuclear nonproliferation policy. This session will discuss the implications of this new trilateral security partnership and will also explore its geopolitical impact on the future of nuclear nonproliferation.

Panel: Building a Technology Innovation Hub: Lessons from Karnataka

Karnataka has managed to turn Bengaluru and the surrounding areas into a vibrant ecosystem for technology and innovation. There have also been significant efforts to extend this ecosystem to the State as a whole. This session will discuss lessons that can be replicated to build innovation hubs in other parts of the country.

Conversation: Leveraging Technology to Fight Future Pandemics

New technologies can play a pivotal role in preventing any future risks to global public health and help mitigate the perils of the coronavirus pandemic. This session will explore how new technologies can help promote research and development in the bioscience sector, essential for pre-empting and preventing future pandemics.

Conversation: The Internet of Tomorrow

Intervention: Strengthening Technology Partnership: Future of India-Brazil Ties

As two large emerging economies, India and Brazil could work together in areas of emerging technologies through sharing of best practices and undertaking joint research in areas of mutual interest. This session will provide an opportunity to explore areas of mutual interest and possible bilateral and multilateral collaborations, such as BRICS, to deepen cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear and space technologies, information and communication technology, sustainable agriculture, climate change, and healthcare, among other things.

Ministerial Intervention: India & Slovenia: Building Toward a Green Future

Over the last three decades the relationship between India and Slovenia has only continued to grow stronger. The two countries celebrate thirty years of diplomatic relations next year. This session seeks to explore how India & Slovenia can further collaborate, especially in the development of high-tech and clean technologies.

Keynote: Nivruti Rai

Panel: Reaching a Trillion Dollar Digital Economy

The Indian government, that launched the Digital India programme in 2015, is now planning to leverage growing opportunities in manufacturing, engineering, and digitalization to drive the trillion-dollar digital economy vision. However, it faces a few challenges such as delays in development of infrastructure, rural connectivity, digital literacy, and data security, among many others. This session will discuss possible roadblocks to achieving the trillion-dollar mark and potential solutions to bridge those gaps.

Conversation: Global Retail Supply Chains

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore national and global vulnerabilities in the retail supply chains. As e-commerce is slowly, but surely going global, many countries around the world are benefitting from greater cross-border trade through e-commerce. Local artisans are able to reach global markets and previously underserved areas are getting better connected. However, to unleash the global potential of e-commerce, there is a need for creating resilient and harmonious supply chains. These developments provide India an opportunity to become a part of the global supply networks. This session aims to discuss conducive industrial / logistics policies and cutting-edge technologies that will aid India in becoming a part of the resilient global supply chain.

Conversation: The Future of Technology: Resilience and Partnerships

Talk: Leveraging Technology: Promoting Equitable & Inclusive Education

The system of education in India presents complex and multidimensional issues, primarily due to the growing population and the corresponding increase in the demand for education. This session will discuss how we can address these issues by scaling and strengthening the role that technology plays in the Indian education system, to provide quality education in an equitable manner.

Ministerial Intervention: Fourth Industrial Revolution: Harnessing Synergies Between India & Vietnam

Indo-Vietnam Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People Agreement signed last year highlighted that the economic and development partnership between the two countries will be driven by new technologies, innovation, and digitization. The agreement emphasized the need to harness synergies between India’s Digital India mission and Vietnam’s Digital Society vision. To further the partnership between the two countries, the session will deliberate ways to deepen cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear and space technologies, information and communication technology, sustainable agriculture, vaccines, and healthcare, among other things.

Keynote: V. Muraleedharan

Address: Victoria Grand

Conversation: Future of Digital Infrastructure in Asia

In the past few years, Asia has been the engine for growth in digital, telecom, and other e-services. India especially has experienced an impressive development in its digital infrastructure as well. This conversation will discuss the significance of developing digital infrastructure in Asia.

Intervention: Digital Technologies and Sustainability

Digital technologies have the potential to contribute toward the achievement of sustainable development goals. While governments, on the one hand, are developing strategy and regulation to promote sustainable development, businesses, on the other, are adopting digital technologies to advance sustainability. This session will discuss policies and investments that companies are investing in, such as innovative cloud solutions, to ensure resilience which is imperative to building a sustainable and inclusive future.

Panel: Cloud and Sustainability: Transitioning to a Greener Future

Businesses are slowly transitioning to cloud with an objective to enhance efficiency, innovate responsibly, and reduce the carbon footprint of their operations. This session will explore the financial, security, agility, and environmental benefits through cloud and ways in which it can enable new innovations for the benefit of this planet.

Panel: Future of Encryption

Given the increasing regulatory focus on encryption around the world, a myriad of technical alternatives or solutions are being proposed to mitigate societal harms. This session will focus on what these solutions are, how likely they are to succeed and what is the best way forward to resolve some of inherent tensions between lawful access and user safety.

Panel: The World We Live In

How best do we define the world that we live in? This conversation is designed to analyze the changing nature of multilateralism and the diplomatic, technological, and economic disruptions currently underway. Conventional analysis suggests that the current disruptions have fundamentally re-wired diplomatic advances, remodeled supply chains, and paved the path for economic protectionism. Yet are these sound assumptions? What policy strategies can countries and technology companies develop to navigate this complex environment? What differential impact will these changing circumstances have on the developed and the developing world?

Panel: Building an AI Nation

Several countries, including India, have been investing in developing their AI technologies and related policy strategies. The session will discuss the scope of policies that are needed to drive AI innovation and proliferation in sectors beyond merely consumer goods and information technology.

Keynote: Vijay Gokhale

Panel: Enhancing Digital Connectivity in the Indo-Pacific: Opportunities for India-EU-ASEAN

The European Union (EU), India, and ASEAN should establish mutually beneficial relationships, promote investments, and facilitate exchanges in the Indo-Pacific which is home to a vibrant digital ecosystem. This session will explore tangible steps to build such partnerships to enhance sustainable and secure digital connections that support resilient digital economy in the Indo-Pacific.

Panel: Building Data Protection Authorities

India is working towards a national privacy legislation. The effectiveness of this legislation will be defined by the effectiveness of the proposed Data Protection Authority. This session will discuss how countries should approach building a data regulator, best practices, and what lessons can be learnt from global experiences.

Intervention: Leveraging Green Technology: Roadmap to Sustainable Development

The 6th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published in August this year highlighted the severe consequences of continuing the present trajectory of growth and innovation. Countries therefore need to find sensible compromises to support global action on climate change, with carbon offsetting being one alternative. The session will discuss new partnerships and technologies, and deliberate prospects of funding innovations that can create a cleaner, brighter, and more equitable economic future.

Panel: Technological Innovation for Sustainable Development

The economic agenda of nations and companies are increasingly becoming climate-friendly. Digital technology’s transformative potential is being increasingly leveraged to ensure a sustainable future. The session will focus on technologies that companies can leverage to focus more on the adoption and promotion of green tech for sustainable and inclusive development.

Conversation: E-commerce for the Next Half Billion

Innovations in digital technologies along with development of faster internet networks has resulted in accelerated digital transformation and increased reliance on e-commerce. To meet ever-increasing demands of an online shopper, advanced technological practices are being implemented at every point of the supply chain. This session will explore how online and offline retail models are merging on the back of technology and driving digitization for millions of businesses. It will also look at the implications on competition in the retail space, as the market infrastructure becomes more accessible with the internet becoming ubiquitous in India.

Keynote: Open Digital Ecosystem

Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs) are seen as a new kind of digital public infrastructure that allows for transformative community-built solutions, based on a robust governance framework. India has been an exemplar in this field with its efforts to build Aadhaar, UPI, and CoWIN. As India witnesses a rise of ODEs across sectors, this session seeks to understand the potential for ODEs in India.

Intervention: Open Digital Ecosystem

Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs) are seen as a new kind of digital public infrastructure that allows for transformative community-built solutions, based on a robust governance framework. India has been an exemplar in this field with its efforts to build Aadhaar, UPI and CoWIN. As India witnesses a rise of ODEs across sectors, this session seeks to understand the potential for ODEs in India.

Intervention: Open Digital Ecosystem

Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs) are seen as a new kind of digital public infrastructure that allows for transformative community-built solutions, based on a robust governance framework. India has been an exemplar in this field with its efforts to build Aadhaar, UPI, and CoWIN. As India witnesses a rise of ODEs across sectors, this session seeks to understand the potential for ODEs in India.

Panel: The Next Frontiers of Open Digital Ecosystem

Open Digital Ecosystems (ODEs) are seen as a new kind of digital public infrastructure that allows for transformative community-built solutions, based on a robust governance framework. India has been an exemplar in this field with its efforts to build Aadhaar, UPI, and CoWIN. This session seeks to understand the evolving global narratives around ODEs as well as the opportunities and challenges that practitioners could face.