Reimagining Tech Policy

An engaging peer learning session among scholars on August 22, 2025, was led by Ajan Sendhil at ISPP, who holds a BE in Geoinformatics from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, and worked as a geospatial strategy consultant with Woolpert Asia Pacific.

In an era where technology policy discussions often focus on data privacy and AI regulation, Ajan began with a provocative thought. He emphasised that technology policy is not merely about managing specific technologies, but about enabling technology to serve the society better.

The Power of Spatial Context

The session opened with a demonstration, a lone black dot on a white board. Peer responses ranged from philosophical (“a black hole,” “the 99th percentile limitation”) to creative ones. Ajan revealed that this dot represented the primordial atom, the beginning of spatial understanding.

“Space as a concept only exists when we compare it with the contexts of bodies in space,” he explained. “With one atom, space is irrelevant. With two atoms, space emerges between them,” Ajan added.

The John Snow Revelation

Ajan narrated the story of John Snow, the 19th-century epidemiologist who traced the cause of cholera in London.

In 1854, during an epidemic, the prevailing theory blamed an airborne transmission. Snow went a step ahead and mapped infected households as black dots on a street map. A clear pattern emerged as all affected homes drew water from the same pump.

This revelation—that cholera was waterborne—changed public health views forever. The solution then was to simply disable the pump.

“The problem was solved by putting it on a map,” Ajan remarked. “This is why geospatial is special—you can put anything in space to better perceive, understand, and analyse it.”

The Evolution of Geospatial Tools

The session traced the remarkable progression of geospatial technologies—from paper maps to digital maps, 3D models, and ultimately, to spatial digital twins.

The Promise and Problems of Digital Twins

Unlike static maps, digital twins (virtual replicas of physical objects, system or process) enable automatic, bidirectional information flows that can model, predict, and respond to real-world events—whether electrical failures, traffic accidents, or urban infrastructure breakdowns.

One experiment was Virtual Singapore, a $73 million project to create a digital twin of the nation. Despite its promise, reports by 2024 revealed that leaders were unsure what to do with it.

Why? The project lacked dynamic data. “You can’t just collect a thousand datasets yourself,” Ajan observed.

The Digital Ecosystem Solution

So, what next? What we need are not isolated digital twins, but digital ecosystems, which are self-organising systems where data flows naturally, leading to the creation of data banks.

Data Banks: The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Ajan drew an analogy with financial systems. In banking, those with surplus capital deposit money, earning interest, while borrowers access funds by paying fees. Banks act as repositories.

Ajan proposed that while individuals or organisations with surplus data could deposit it in data banks, those in need of data can access it by compensating them. According to Ajan, data commoditisation is the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Policy Challenge

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, is India’s first comprehensive data privacy law, which regulates the processing of digital personal data by balancing individuals’ privacy rights with lawful data processing. Its success depends on its enforcement.

Conclusion

Technology policy debates often focus on AI safety, data breaches, or privacy concerns. The key is to harness data to better serve society.