INDIA. New Delhi: The internet has become an integral part of our lives. We rely on it for communication, education, marketing, managing finances, traveling, and the list is never-ending. It has made our lives easier in many ways.

India's dependence on Google

Recently, Google services like Gmail and YouTube went down across the world. Multiple countries were hit by this outage, with China being a notable exception. Western companies have taken over the Indian internet market. Today, many are questioning the interdependence of standards set up in the west and the current technological dependence on the west.

Supply trying to meet the demand

India needs a strategy to break the hegemony of the west. Technological developments and innovations are needed to boost overall economic growth. This is exactly how the East India Technologies company established its roots in India. They are introducing technologies to the rest of the world and making money. This revenue is then is used to build new generation technologies.

India has a large youth population. It possesses the resources to develop an integrated system that could make the nation self-reliant while the established tech giants have built brand loyalty among the people for years.

Colonialism redefined

In today's world, physical invasion is not the only way to colonize. Lots of information is circulated digitally and these platforms could be a private multinational company. They have the authority to control activities using their database, which is the same as controlling a vital resource: access to information.

Challenges in attaining digital independence

Earlier this year, Google said it would invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years. The partnership comes at an exciting, but critical, stage in India's digitization. The changes in technology and network plans have enabled more than half a billion Indians to get online. However, the majority of people in India still don't have access to the internet, and fewer still own a smartphone, so there's much more work ahead.

Finding the way forward

India needs a robust system of its own, one that's not reliant on every byte of data being routed through the United States. There must be checks and balances in place so that if a global breakdown happens tomorrow, India is ready. This will require state-driven vision and financial backing to succeed. The current political system will have to look beyond the established, new colonial norms for technological freedom.