India must build its own search engine for digital sovereignty: Cong MP Dangi

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Neeraj Dangi on Wednesday called for the development of an indigenous internet search engine, arguing that India must reduce its dependence on foreign technology platforms to safeguard data and strengthen digital sovereignty.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Dangi said the data of nearly 1.4 billion Indians is largely collected and processed by foreign companies such as Google, posing potential risks to privacy and cybersecurity.

‘Digital choke point’ warning

Drawing a geopolitical analogy, Dangi said global tech platforms have become “digital choke points” for India.

“The way the Strait of Hormuz is a choke point, similarly Google and Microsoft have become our digital choke points,” he said, warning that in the event of geopolitical tensions or sanctions, critical services could be disrupted.

He cautioned that platforms such as Google, YouTube, Gmail and Android updates could be affected if relations between India and the United States deteriorate.

Cites global examples

The Congress MP pointed out that several countries — including China, Russia, France, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Vietnam—have developed their own indigenous search engines, many of which dominate their domestic markets.

Such initiatives, he said, have helped those countries strengthen their control over data and digital infrastructure.

Flags past disruption

Dangi also referred to a 2025 incident in which Microsoft reportedly stopped cloud services to an Indian refinery following European Union-linked sanctions, citing it as an example of vulnerability arising from dependence on foreign tech providers.

He urged the government to issue a white paper on digital sovereignty and lay out a clear roadmap for developing domestic capabilities in search engines, cloud infrastructure and software ecosystems.

The remarks come amid growing global debates on data localisation, platform regulation and strategic autonomy in the digital domain.