It's true that India wants to build its own surveillance state. Every rational great power wannabe will want to do so, just as every great power wannabe has wan

It's true that India wants to build its own surveillance state. Every rational great power wannabe will want to do so, just as every great power wannabe has wanted a nuclear arsenal. Seems like table stakes in that rat race. And who can blame anyone for doing so - it would be stupid to let data with security implications to go through American companies with a potential backdoor after Snowden and Wikileaks, just as it would be stupid to be caught without nuclear weapons after Iraq and North Korea. I am not as worried about the ease with which Indian citizen's privacy will be violated if these laws pass - systems such as Aadhar are far greater threats to our privacy and those come with the full force of the law and have support from every government in power, whether NDA or UPA or some third alliance. Plus, I would want foreign companies collecting data about Indian citizens to be accountable to the Indian public. The Bhopal tragedy is a good example of what happens when a foreign company isn't accountable to Indians in any manner whatsoever. Of course, one might doubt whether Indian efforts to secure our data will withstand NSA or Chinese efforts to crack them, but we won't know until we try!