NSA warns on tech concentration

Delivering the Golden Jubilee Memorial Lecture at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here,  Menon said that the infrastructure behind the internet and communications technology, which has allowed, ironically, broader democratic participation among people, is increasingly being owned by a handful of companies.

Towards achieving better technology security, he argued that India had to do transition from a consumer of technology to producer of technology. “The state has to provide an enabling environment to achieve this. This is where scientists come in to help us,” he said. He added that scientists would be better at betting on individual technologies, as the state is not particularly good at that.

Menon cited the examples of both nuclear and space programmes where active encouragement from the state has shown good results. He added that the telecom sector was one area where India has moved behind compared to the 80’s. “We need to leverage access in the telecom sector. For this we have sufficient talent to utilise both in India and abroad”, he added.

The NSA also said that the the current export control regimes were in India’s favour.

“Many new domains have sprung over the last couple of years. I see this as an opportunity for our scientists”, he added.

Menon also urged scientists to take part in the debate on finding solutions to various problems. “Currently the debate is between social scientists and the government establishment. We need scientists to contribute to this debate, as we are dealing with direct contribution of scientists”, he said.

He flagged cyber warfare and cyber espionage as a growing area where there was still a lot of uncertainties. The NSA pointed that cyber risks manifested in two ways: risks to cyberspace, and risks emanating from cyberspace. He added “We don’t have any accepted social science labels for many of these activities. For instance, is cyber warfare the same as conventional war? Who decides whether it is a war”.