How exposed is India to foreign tech?, Pg8

Key Highlights:

• India faces significant exposure to foreign technology across critical sectors, including satellite communications, navigation, cloud computing, digital payments, and military equipment.
• Recent actions by Elon Musk, such as throttling the Starshield network in Ukraine, highlight the potential for foreign operators to restrict critical services.
• India's indigenous satellite navigation system, NavIC, currently lacks the required number of operational satellites to provide standalone positioning services.
• While the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) provides domestic payment independence, consumer-facing applications are often foreign-controlled, and international financial sanctions pose a risk.
• India's military procurement, including the Tejas fighter program, relies heavily on foreign components, leading to potential vulnerabilities and production delays.
• The government's MeghRaj cloud infrastructure, despite efforts for localization, still depends on private, often foreign, cloud providers for certain functionalities.

Detailed Insights:

• The article identifies three main risks: direct service restriction by foreign operators, disruption of access to Indian systems by foreign-controlled platforms, and degradation of capabilities by foreign suppliers.
• In satellite communications, companies like Starlink and Eutelsat OneWeb are controlled by foreign entities, even with Indian investment in the latter.
• ISRO has launched communication satellites for broadcasting and strategic use, and India possesses dedicated military satellite communication capabilities.
• The NavIC constellation requires at least four satellites for standalone positioning, but only three are currently able to provide signals.
• The US GPS system, while not degrading civilian accuracy, retains the ability to deny Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services for military purposes in specific areas.
• Major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud serve numerous Indian businesses and public institutions.
• MeghRaj 2.0 aims to keep Indian data physically within India using AWS Outposts, but the management services for these remain under foreign control.
• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) developed UPI in 2016, creating a robust domestic payment infrastructure.
• Historical instances, such as US sanctions after Operation Shakti in 1998, demonstrate how foreign political decisions can disrupt Indian military procurement.
• India was the world's second-largest importer of major arms between 2021 and 2025, with significant reliance on Russia, France, Israel, and the US.

Key Concepts Involved:

• NavIC: India's independent regional satellite navigation system, providing positioning, navigation, and timing services over India and surrounding regions.
• Unified Payments Interface (UPI): An instant real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), facilitating inter-bank transactions via mobile phones.
• MeghRaj: The Indian government's cloud computing initiative, providing secure and scalable infrastructure for e-governance applications.
• Operation Shakti: The code name for India's 1998 nuclear weapon tests, which led to international sanctions and highlighted vulnerabilities in military procurement.