India may soon have its own social media platforms:  Amit Dubey

Hyderabad: Digital disruption is all around us. A Panel Discussion on Disruptive Technologies and their impact was organised by ESC, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council as part of the Mega Global MSME Business Summit on the second day of Global Soft 2020 here at HICC, Madhapur on Wednesday.
 
Interacting with media, on the sidelines of the Panel Discussion, Amit  Dubey,  National Security Expert,  Author of books Return Of The Trojan Horse and  Hidden Files: Tales of Cyber Crime Investigation,  who is also an adviser to the proposed “The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019”, said the draft of the bill is over it is most likely to be placed in Parliament this month. According to him, the ruling government is more keen in getting it passed. Amit Dubey is currently the Deputy CTO with Tech Mahindra. He was one of the Panelists along with Mr BVR Mohan Reddy, Former NASSCOM Chief; Mr. Mandeep Singh Puri, Chairman, ESC; Mr Manoj Chandiramani, IT Business Strategy Consultant & Investor and Mr George Paul, CEO, MAIT.
 
When asked how to read the sudden and recent announcement of Prime Minister Naredra Modi that he might quit social media in near future, Amit the renowned Crime Investigator on Cyber Forensics and Ethical Hacking to various Indian Investigation Agencies and Police deptt, who is party to many internal discussions in the Ministry said, there were discussions for some time that In the interest of the nation and safety and personal data of its citizens, the government was advised to have their own social media platforms including whatsApp. In fact discussion are active inside many close quarters in the Ministry to have India’s own Facebook, CryptoCurrency and others, he added.
 
The efforts to secure data of its citizens didn’t yield any results in the past. So many countries across the globe are thinking on these lines. Many countries in Europe, more so Denmark are also thinking on these lines and more nations may follow the suit. The China already has its own Social Media platforms. WhatsApp does not work in China due to restrictions enforced by the state's Great Firewall which censors internet use.
 
China has WeChat, it is China's billion-user messaging app. It is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent. It is very popular there and has more than a billion monthly users, just behind Facebook's WhatsApp, he shared.
 
Replying to a question, participating in the discussion on data privacy, Amit Dubey, Author, National Security Expert and Deputy CTO, Tech Mahindra said, there are two kinds of people in the world. And the one set of people are those who are Hacked and the other set of ones are those who are yet to be hacked.
 
There is a strong need and responsibility of identifying lapses in the present data protection regulations and preparing more robust and comprehensive data protection laws is very important, he observed.
 
It’s importance is reiterated with the recent announcement of Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, planning to quit social media. A huge amount of personal data of all of us in India is going out of India and we don’t have any control on it.  This has raised a debate that like China, why cant India has its own social media, said Amit Dubey, National Security Expert
 
Amit added that all the big and richest companies are selling their products free of cost and capturing very useful data of millions.
 
A prominent speaker and a renowned name on national and international cyber security conferences, Amit is regularly quoted in Indian print and electronic media on global cyber issues. He is also invited by various arms of the Indian government, including its defense forces to train their cyber professionals, acknowledging his authority on cyber security. Many overseas delegates interacted with him eagerly and sought more inputs.
 
Participating in the discussion, BVR Mohan Reddy who has seen and created disruption, spoke about importance of disruptive technology and way forward said improved connectivity, storage facility, automation and change of most fundamental substances like Net Generation Genomics and Advanced materials, all are adding up to the disruptive environment.
 
Because of this disruption, the average life span of many S&P 500 companies is also changing. The average life span of a company in 1935 was 90years, in 1955 it was 45 years, in 1975 it was 26 years, changed to 19 years in 1995 and in 2010 it stood at 14years.
 
The technology is ubiquitous faster. It took airlines 68 years to gain 50 million users; Automobiles 62 years; telephones 50 years; electricity 46 years; credit cards 28years; TV 22 years; ATM 18years; Computers 14 years; cell phone 12years; internet 7 years; I-pods 4 years; Youtube 4 years, Facebook 3 years; Twitter 2 years, Pokemon Go 19 days, Mr Reddy explained.
 
Mandeep Singh Puri said, unlike in the past, the change of technology is a daily affair. In the past it used to take many years to see changes. Technology is both destructive as well as constructive. It is how you see is important. Competition is the major driver of the change, he observed. He spoke about Phygital—a mix of the terms Physical & Digital is merging as the important aspects of digital and physical marketing to optimize the customer experience.
 
The panel discussion was organised as part of the GlobalSoft 2020.
 
GlobalSoft 2020 is a forum bringing Indian SMEs and Foreign buyers on a single platform. The two day meet concluded here in the city today evening