Red Flag Act of UK was a historic act, passed in 1865 by the British Parliament that required all the self-propelled vehicles on public roads to be preceded by a man on foot waving a flag to warn pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles of their approach. It was a law that hindered the widespread adoption of the new technology.
The Red Flag Act is seen as a symbol of resistance to progress by many supporters of the new technology. The Act limited the speed of the automobile, making the invention impractical and expensive. Automobiles were designed to be faster than horse drawn carriage, and carry more weight. However, the act defeated the purpose of the invention.
Similarly, India has also enacted some acts that regulate the emerging technology:
- Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 which was introduced by the government to regulate the Social Media can have the effect of stifling new innovations in privacy and communication.
- Indian Patent Laws also are very restrictive, and create barriers to innovation in certain sectors. There are very few patents, long waiting times and very difficult renewal for patents. This can discourage companies from investing in research and development in India.
However, regulating emerging technologies that can disrupt any sector is very challenging. Few challenges associated with regulating emerging technologies are:
- Unpredictability: The unpredictable nature of business models that rely on emerging technologies, which makes it difficult to regulate them. For example, ChatGPT relies on data, while Twitter relies on subscription fee.
- Pace of Development: The rapid pace of technological change can make it difficult for regulators to keep up with the latest developments. The companies that operate in such emerging technologies may influence the market negatively by exploiting the loopholes.
- Policy Support: Regulators need to create an enabling environment for the effective roll-out of emerging technologies, which involves developing governance institutions, policies, and laws that can keep pace with technological change. India launched Emerging Technologies Initiative for this.
- Ethical Concerns: Some emerging technologies raise ethical concerns about how they are developed and used. For example, artificial intelligence raises questions about bias and discrimination, while gene editing raises concerns about genetic engineering and eugenics. Regulating such ethical questions requires a wide consensus building and agile governance to prevent side effects.
Regulations related to emerging technology should strive to maintain a balance between public safety and predictability, while allowing innovation. Job losses and change of the established norms (for example due to internet banking) should not stop the government from accepting the innovations.
Integrating such emerging technologies into governance helps speedup adoption. For example- Big Data in CoWin Platform for vaccination, Blockchain in Land Records Modernisation, etc. Thus, India should also accept the emerging technologies such as – autonomous vehicles, precision medicine and gene editing.
