Bhavish Aggarwal Decries 'Techno-Colonialism' in India's Data Exploitation

Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal terms the export and repurchase of India's data by foreign tech giants as 'techno-colonialism.' He advocates for India's own technology infrastructure to harness and benefit from its data, emphasizing a collaborative effort from various societal stakeholders.

Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has coined the term 'techno-colonialism' to highlight a modern issue where India's data is exported, processed overseas, and then resold back to India. In an interview with ANI, he compared this data exploitation to the historical plundering of India's resources by the British East India Company, arguing that the bulk of benefits derived from India's data are being monopolized by international tech giants.

'Only a tenth of that data is stored within India. The remaining 90% is exported to global data centers primarily owned by large tech companies. This data is processed into AI, brought back, and sold to us in dollars,' Aggarwal noted. 'It's akin to what happened 200 years ago with the East India Company. We exported cotton then and imported manufactured clothes. Now, we export data and import intelligence. It's techno-colonialism,' he emphasized.

Aggarwal cited an incident where ANI's news story was repurposed abroad and redistributed in India without proper attribution. He proposes that collaboration with Indian publishers could counteract this, suggesting a model similar to global deals with other publishers.

'These are technology battles, not legal. India needs to build its technological solutions based on its values. For instance, our digital public infrastructure like UPI and ONDC is uniquely Indian,' Aggarwal explained. He pointed out that India generates 20% of the world's digital data, in line with its sizable global population.

Referring to India's young demographic, Aggarwal stated, 'We produce significant data, contributing to AI development. Data should be controlled by its creators. On social media, our data is our intellectual property. We must foster sharing data in privacy-preserving ways to maximize its use for AI.'

Aggarwal called for a collective effort to create an Indian paradigm for data and AI, involving media, bureaucrats, and businesses. 'Companies like Krutrim, which I founded, need support to flourish. India must invest in this ecosystem for decades to catch up,' he asserted.

Krutrim, Aggarwal's venture, offers text generation with Indian cultural relevance, supporting 22 scheduled languages. The model can transition between languages and topics seamlessly and has been available in beta since February 2024. Aggarwal, who co-founded Ola Cabs in 2011, was recognized in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from IIT Bombay.

(With inputs from agencies.)