Introduction

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government have taken a much-awaited and needed decision of protecting our digital boundaries. The difference between digital boundaries and physical boundaries is Physical boundaries can be seen by physical eyes but digital boundaries are not visible to human surveillance. Technology is meant to be making our lives easier, more accessible but the dark side of technology is that it can also be used for unethical purposes. In the last decade, China has invaded our digital boundaries by its Information technology products. Today Indian ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has a vast dependence upon foreign Software & hardware products. Ravi Shankar Prasad has righty mentioned the ban of 59 apps as a digital strike and today China is feeling the heat.

DATA IS THE NEW OIL

Some years back it was said that Data will be the new oil but the truth is that now Data is the new oil. Actually, OIL has become the engine that will drive the economies in the future and the country which develops technological supremacy around it will lead the world.

It’s a well-known fact that Data is the New Oil. During the lockdown of the world, the world spent its time online and have started learning a new way of living but imagine an application installed on your mobile and computer has access to all the information which you possess? It can know which email you are writing, it can have access to your bank details, it can understand your political beliefs so that in future it can send you advertisements that can manipulate your thinking, imagine it understands your family’s psychology, and influences them to become an anti- country. The possibilities are immense.

Today by hacking an army officer’s phone can give you access to super-secret information. All this is directly related to a Nations's sovereignty.

Today next-generation technologies are based upon the data which is acquired and India is the world’s largest data generating country. Imagine what can be done with data accumulated from 800 million people.

China

Today out of every top 10 internet companies in the world 5 companies are Chinese and out of the top 100, India has only one company to its credit, which technically is not Indian anymore.

China is way ahead compared to the other nations in the Asia Pacific region. Till late 2014 only 13.9 % unicorn ( 1 billion dollar valuation start-ups ) were from China and now it is home to 35% of Unicorn start-ups, this is a phenomenal growth in 4 years. This growth is fuelled by aggressive policies of the Chinese government and more importantly a well planned and executed strategic execution. Chinese start-ups are given a preference within their market and its safe to say that they have built it keeping the countries global strategic in perspective. Today thanks to a robust and conducive environment given to Chinese product based technological companies, Chinese companies are moving out of their domestic market and have penetrated markets across the globe. First through IT hardware and now through software companies, China is moving inside into the ecosystem of the international market which has been dominated by American companies over the period.

America accounted for 61% of total Unicorn start-ups across the globe and now it has dipped to 41% and with 35% China is bound to move ahead of America very soon. This movement has been very swift and well planned by the Chinese government. Soon in the coming times, the IT landscape of the world will change and with the pace, China is bound to move ahead. China has invested heavily in its Start-up ecosystem both centrally and regionally. Chinese provinces have also invested to develop the startup ecosystem. Not only internally but Chinese Venture Capital funds have invested in companies worldwide.

Shenzhen Capital Group (SCGC), one of China’s most prominent venture capital firms, is a government-backed group that has invested in over 150 companies. In 2016 the Chinese government announced a 30$ billion-dollar fund which was in response to Indian Governments Make in India & Start-up India initiative but the Chinese establishments are ahead of India in nurturing technological start-ups.

Recently Indian e-commerce startup Flipkart was taken by Walmart is an example of our gradual dependency on foreign players now. Overall when there is a dip in global VC investments there is a sharp rise in Chinese funding across the world especially in Start-ups across the Silicon Valley and Indian start-ups as well. Nearly 5 Billion dollars were invested by Chinese technology companies in India targeting Indian Start-ups. This investment was just 930$million in 2016. (live mint ref)

Didi chuxing” is only second to Uber and it has 56 billion dollars as a valuation to his credit. Adding to the reality Indian start-up in the same segment is number 38 with the valuation of approximately 3.65 million dollars which is known as OLA. this comparison is self-explanatory about where we stand. China has already made a 9.9-million-dollar investment in Silicon Valley in 2015 itself which gives them Direct Access to the cutting edge technology which might have the Chinese ambition to become the most powerful military power in future

Way forward

2020 shall be remembered as the year of changing word order and thus it’s a year when a nation can really understand its true potential. We have finally understood that the only way forward it to create the next technological superpowers within. We have to create our own Alibaba, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and many more. This won’t happen overnight but will take time. It’s a visionary thought of our current political leadership that we are focusing on “AtamNirbhar Bharat: where indigenous capabilities are developed with the ecosystem of the country. We have been the giving best brains to the world and now it’s time that the brains are utilized for countries' benefit. ISRO is a shining example that we are a nation that can lead the world in space today. This decision could not have come out at a better time because the nation is coming out of an unprecedented time. Today our fight back against corona is best in the world and hence this is the time when we as a nation can lead the next technological wave.

A nation stands behind the decision of its leadership and which shall be followed by the world soon.