Continual Improvement

In the West, we see periodic clamouring that Google or Facebook or Amazon has too much data, and that they be split up e.g. Google into search, YouTube, Gmail and Android each as a separate company. Or Facebook into, er, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp as separate companies.

 

While India sees the problem, the DEPA framework acknowledges some of the benefits of one company having a lot of data. A massive Amazon or Flipkart that delivers all over the country can bring down costs for consumers, something not possible if every company in that sector was small.

 

What then would be a good balance? Rahul Matthan asks us to consider a bank in in The Third Way. As the entity with all the personal financial data, it has an outsized advantage. No new entity with a new idea in the lending space can ever hope to compete against a bank with so much information. DEPA’s architecture has a way, at least in theory. The data the banks holds is actually the account owner’s data. Therefore, the system (and laws) can insist that the bank make available the account owner’s data to anyone in a standardized format if authorized/requested by the individual. This would make new players get access to data too (if authorized).

 

This Indian approach doesn’t need companies broken up. Large companies do create certain benefits for society (like the lower prices of Flipkart and Amazon); it is the data monopoly aspect that needs to be shaken up.

 

Many EU countries are thinking on similar lines as India. The problem though is they don’t have an Aadhar equivalent digital ID nor do they have a tech infrastructure base like India Stack to operationalize these ideas. Whereas India does, and it is not sitting back on its laurels. It is continuously evolving and improving the India Stack via both new ideas, new needs and the DEPA framework.

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