India, July 5 -- India stands at a critical crossroads. As foreign technology giants continue to expand their dominance over our digital infrastructure, we risk ushering in a new era of "digital colonialism"-a 21st-century version of the East India Company saga. What began centuries ago with trade agreements eventually led to full-scale colonial rule. Today, the digital economy risks a similar fate, with Indian data being extracted, repurposed by foreign AI companies, and sold back to us in the form of intelligence services. The parallel is not merely rhetorical-it is a real and urgent threat.

AI platforms like OpenAI and xAI's Grok are already under scrutiny-not just from the Indian government and businesses, but globally. Their operati...