Launch of the South Asia Digital Transformation Forum (May 5, 2025)

The South Asia Digital Transformation Forum, spearheaded by the Sundar Singh Institute of South Asian Studies, has successfully convened on May 5, 2025, under the direction of Dr. Sunita Rao and Prof. Andrew Hyunwoo Kim. This effort has been put together to not only provide an interdisciplinary collaborative forum of South Asian policymakers, academics, and specialists in technology but also to critically assess the trajectory and speed of digital transformation across South Asia and what it means for governance, equity in education, and socioeconomic progress with sustainability efforts in mind.

The outcomes of this unprecedented event promoted a collaborative atmosphere for give-and-take between empirical and research-based findings and policy suggestions regarding how potential new digital infrastructures could, for example, reduce deep-rooted inequities. Equity of access was a primary agenda discussion; virtual classrooms could offer access to educational resources otherwise unavailable, while telehealth could provide access to medical services, otherwise remote or stigmatized, and through financial technologies, access to previously marginalized populations could be cut off from appropriate banking procedures. Simultaneously, however, many reminders of the digitally inequitable divide were assessed in relationship to digital competencies and gaps in infrastructure. Likewise, a good portion of the discussions revolved around the ethics of surveillance and bureaucratic algorithmic authority with a cautionary note that any type of digital transformation in South Asia should also uphold democratic standards and human rights.