With India’s digital turn as the backdrop, Carnegie India recently hosted the inaugural Global Technology Summit. This Summit, supported by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, took place in Bengaluru on the 6th and 7th of December, 2016.

Given the extraordinary implications of new technologies for governance, development, and security, a new framework of engagement is needed to address the concerns of all stakeholders, without hindering technological progress or core national interests. The Global Technology Summit aimed to fulfill this role by bringing together industry leaders, academics and technologists from India and abroad at a single forum and in conversation with each other.

Leading up to the Summit, Carnegie India curated a special edition of the Seminar magazine, titled “Digital Dividend,” with essays by experts on several themes subsequently discussed at the Summit. Carnegie India also created the Technology Forum Initiative as a platform to understand the unique ways in which technology transforms, rewards and challenges society. This Forum, supported by India’s technology leaders, is committed to helping India prepare for a technologically transformed future, and to bridging the gap between innovation and policymaking through cutting-edge research in technology policy.

The discussions at the Summit revolved around issues as important and diverse as creating a vibrant innovation ecosystem in India, optimal regulations for sustainable technological progress, technologies of the future and their policy implications, and the role of India in today’s interconnected world.