Editorial 1: Withholding laurels
Recent Context:
- This year, government had decided to “withhold” the Bhatnagar awards as a part of a “rationalisation” endeavour.
About Bhatnagar awards.
- The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and physics
- On Every year, September 26, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) observes its Foundation Day by recognising the work of scientists below the age of 45
- The announcement of the award, instituted in the name of the Council’s founder-director, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, has been a keenly awaited event in the scientific community’s calendar since 1958.
Till now list of awardees is not mentioned this year:
- last year, the CSIR’s Foundation Day went by without this centrepiece event the list of awardees was, reportedly, decided but not announced.
- This year, too, there is no sign that the CSIR is drawing up a list of Bhatnagar laureates — the government is reportedly working on a “new structure of science awards”.
- It is, of course, well within its remit to redesign the criteria for recognising talent. But constrict CSIR’s autonomy and deprive mid-career scholars who may have resisted the temptation to work oversea of the public recognition
- Therefore, it may discourage many young minds to become more creative and take on difficult challenges
How far is it justified to withhold the award to bring reform in selection process
- Of course, recognising talent early is fraught with subjectivity and there is scope for reform in selection processes.
- But putting the prestigious award on hold without a convincing explanation does more harm than good.
- Research involves painstaking work that can stretch over years, even decades. A researcher has to regularly contend with funding delays and vexing bureaucratic interference.
- The uncertainty over the Bhatnagar awards will be dispiriting to those who work under such conditions, especially because, last year, the government discontinued nearly 300 awards and fellowships. Such disincentives could result in the country losing out on promising talent.
Conclusion:
- While recognising the contribution of scientist in nation building , Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the “country has not celebrated the work of scientists as much as it should have done”.
- Therefore, the government’s attitude towards the premier award for young scientists does great disservice to the PM’s vision. It should announce a list of Bhatnagar laureates this year that will inspire the young scientist to work more dedicatedly.
- Editorial 2: Spectre of a Barbenheimer future
Recent Context:
- India at 75 is still taking baby steps into the realm of data privacy. It has been just five years since we acquired a definitive right to privacy.
- A law on digital data protection, very different from the one that was debated for half a decade, is now imminent.
- Public consciousness and behaviour on the subject are also evolving. Meanwhile, pools of personal data are being assembled and processed all around us.
India’s future of digital technology
- Technologies, policies and practices will continue to collide over the years to shape India’s digital and lived reality. Numerous scenarios could emerge, including the two imagined here.
- The first, which I refer to as the Barbenheimer future, would rely heavily on technocentric solutionism combined with digital escapism.
- The second imagines a more equitable digital society born out of the wishful optimism for a more privacy and digital rights-respecting future.
Barbenheimer future of India’s digital technology
- “Barbenheimer” is an internet phenomenon that emerged from the simultaneous release and divergent themes of the films Barbie and Oppenheimer.
- An Oppenheimer-style future will be founded on stubborn faith in technology to manage all aspects of the polity.
- Digital technologies, often with high-risks, will be seen as the path to sovereignty, domination, progress and empowerment. Like the men behind Oppenheimer’s atomic bomb, a privileged group of technical experts, bureaucrats, and politicians will get to choose which technologies India should adopt and how.
- Laws will become a smokescreen for protection, as privacy and other rights routinely succumb to security and nation-building interests.
- Surveillance, data leaks and various forms of exclusion will be routine social realities, bitter pills to be swallowed for the greatest good of the greatest number.
- In parallel, citizens will find solace in a Barbie-like metaverse curated by large tech corporations.
- In this escapist world, life will be experienced through rose-tinted glasses, surrounded by like-minded Barbies and Kens, imagining the rights of our choosing.
- But this will of course be only a simulated environment powered by virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Personal data will be the fodder and the yield of this hyper-personalised ecosystem.
- In the process, digital citizens would either be treated as subjects, to be “protected” and overseen by the state or users, to be entertained and surveilled by corporations.
In the scenario of Equitable digital future
- In contrast, the equitable digital future will be citizen-centric by design. Its equity will reflect in the relationship between citizens and the state and their interactions with responsible private actors.
- This imagination assumes that in the immediate future India will adopt a sound legal structure for data protection supported by an independent data protection agency.
- Unlike the current version, this law will offer meaningful protections that apply equally to the private sector and state agencies.
- In parallel, comprehensive surveillance reforms will guarantee that citizens’ privacy is protected by judicial oversight and robust procedural safeguards.
- The equitable digital future will also gain from the advancement of privacy enhancing technologies. Encrypted data processing will be the norm for all transactions and data anonymisation techniques would have evolved significantly.
- India will also leverage its experience in building digital public goods to pursue meaningful data empowerment
- This design is arguably more empowering for data users than individuals. But maturity in India’s data protection regime will cause a bottom-up reimagining of such systems to foster greater agency for individuals and communities and accountability from data users
Along with digital rights, there is need to protect human rights, accountability and trust
- With the passes of time time, India will have universal digital access, a sophisticated cyber security apparatus, nuanced jurisprudence on online speech and expression, and a sound framework for AI governance.
- Therefore, All these instruments should have emerged through open engagement with stakeholders, prioritising human rights, accountability and trust.
Conclusion:
- With the new data protection law and the proposed Digital India Act, India is at an inflection point of digital governance.
- The choices we make today will influence where India will find itself in the next 25 years. This implies not just policy choices but also societal, technological and personal ones.
- Hopefully, the sum of these choices will land us somewhere closer to the equitable future imagined here than the Barbenheimer one.