Designing a New Digital Governance

India’s digital businesses have observed three model shifts this year. First, there has been rapid digitalization of traditional sectors, as a response to Covid-19, resulting in the exceptional growth of markets like tech, health tech, telemedicine, and digital onboarding. Second, 200 applications, which originated in China, including popular communications and entertainment platforms, are banned thanks to security considerations. Finally, a growing set of voices advocate less dependence on American platforms like Google which will single-handedly determine the market potential for digital start-ups. of these changes point to the necessity for an appropriate policy response.

Nimble-footedness may be a key characteristic of competitive digital businesses, which deserves reflection in policy design. Businesses that provide multiple use-cases, products, and services account for an outsized share of the value generated in global digital markets. Seven of the highest eight global firms in terms of market capitalization use data-centric business models and are either American or Chinese. The worldwide digital economy is, unfortunately, a caricature of the normal economy. Us (US) and China dominate because their market conditions are conducive for “platform station” — stacking multiple services into single catch-all applications like Facebook or WeChat.

Raghav Saxena

Birla School, Pilani