Politics

Parliamentary Committee Calls for Unified Technology Vision and New Coordination Body

By Sejal Sharma

The parliamentary committee on external affairs, chaired by Shashi Tharoor, has urged the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to draft a public "technology vision and strategy document". The committee expressed surprise that India has no single written strategy linking technology with foreign policy, describing the current approach as "fragmentary, piecemeal and ad hoc". It said that isolated successes cannot replace a national vision.

The committee recommends that the MEA collaborate with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and other departments to prepare the document, consulting academia, research institutions and industry. The document should set India’s goals, priorities and the roles of different ministries. It also calls for a separate "technology diplomacy strategy" for the MEA. Both documents should be made public and reviewed periodically.

To ensure regular coordination, the committee proposes a formal inter‑ministerial body on technology diplomacy, chaired by the MEA and including the IT, science, space and commerce ministries, rather than a case‑by‑case approach.

The recommendations are part of the committee’s 17th report, adopted on 22 September and presented to the Lok Sabha Speaker on 25 September.

Revision of AI strategy The report notes that India has strong capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) but still faces gaps in computing power, data centre capacity, access to advanced chips and private investment in large AI models. It points out that NITI Aayog’s national AI strategy was drafted before the emergence of large language models and urges NITI Aayog and MeitY to revise it in consultation with the MEA.

India has moved from seventh to third place globally on the Stanford Global AI Vibrancy Tool, a benchmarking suite developed by the Stanford Institute for Human‑Centered Artificial Intelligence. The committee cautions that the gap with the US and China remains substantial, describing it as "a difference of kind and not only of degree".

The recommendations come as MeitY announced on Thursday that it would release a consultation paper within a month as a precursor to framing AI regulations. The paper will focus on safety, humanity, skilling, inclusivity and harm mitigation.

Data centre figures unverified The committee questioned claims that India holds about 20% of the world’s data but accounts for only 3% of global data centre capacity. MeitY told the panel that neither figure was officially verified. Industry estimates cited in the report suggest capacity may need to rise from around 1.5 gigawatts in 2025 to 5‑10 GW by 2030. The committee recommends that the MEA coordinate with MeitY and other ministries to collect and publish verified data to guide international investments and technology partnerships.