India's objectives in ORF (CyFy) meet, 2021

Ground Report | New Delhi: India's objectives in ORF; On Tuesday, 19 October, a part of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) CyFy 2021 four days of the conference on tech-net and cyber security, with the key themes of Fy 2021, ‘The Big Pause: Reclaiming our Tech Futures.

The event is being organized by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). CyFy 2021 will gather an international community of experts to identify technology norms, standards, and regulations, in a virtual setting. Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, India, Anurag Thakur will deliver the inaugural address. (India's objectives in ORF)

Union Minister for broadcasting and information, India remarked India is part of the Global village and as it is close to reaching the 1 billion mark in giving Covid-19 Vaccines all over the world, it is rapidly building capacities to provide solutions in every sector within its territories.

He gave examples like the UPI being clubbed with JAM trinity which resulted in boosting India’s telecommunication industry and leading it to more Micro Entrepreneurship and more career opportunities in the e-commerce sector, end result being India self-reliant.

He added that the Ministry is focused on decentralising the communication network and preventing the spread of fake news by introducing regional language-based communication so as to give communication to the grass root levels in the country.

He added, that India is the founding member and signatory of the International Partnership for Information Democracy. India’s telecommunication ministry has taken steps such as building a factored unit to ensure a regular flow of correct information throughout the country. (India's objectives in ORF)

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Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO, and Co-founder, Koo App, will talk about how platforms become core states engage with each other and their constituents, it has become a norm for governments to pursue legal and administrative action to rein in tech companies.

During the four days, event panelists from different parts of the world will take part in this event. In the event key question animating our digital debates this year is who will own our tech futures?

A new wave of technologies, norms, government policies, and social practices will emerge, wither or evolve, forcing rapid resolutions to long-standing fault-lines or, for better or worse, overturning them.

Some of the topics which will be highlighted on the first day of the event  

Safety and the Net: Protecting Children Online

Children, like adults, are entitled to certain rights in online spaces: the right to a safe environment, the right to privacy, and other protections surrounding the data they generate and the ways they engage with platforms. Yet unlike most adults, children are far more vulnerable to the abuse of said rights, and harmful online experiences can have severe psychological and developmental impacts. Do online service providers have a duty of care to institute special protections for children who use their platforms?

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Civil-Military Technology Interface: Weaponisation of Outer Space

Fuelled by tectonic shifts in regional and global balances of power, increasing security-driven competition in space has compelled many states to develop counter-space capabilities that can be used to disrupt, deny, or destroy space systems. These activities need to be regulated to ensure safe, secure, and sustainable use of outer space for all. Space militarisation and the early trends towards space weaponisation point to the urgent need to develop new norms and rules. What are the key trends, processes, and gaps in our responses to space weaponisation?

Weaponising Geotech: Competition, Interdependence, and Innovation

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a belief emerged that trade was now to be free, the spread of which would lead to democratisation. For three decades following the end of the Cold War, global trade remained relatively ‘open’, at least for the developed West. This era of relative stability has now been punctured by rising geopolitical tensions, notably between the US and China, but also increasing differences on issues of market access, trade, and investments, especially in the technological realm, amongst erstwhile like-minded blocs like the EU and the US, developing Asia and elsewhere. Were technology trade flows always unequal, or is the current trend toward regionalisation and localization fundamentally different?

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