Suggested Theme For Paper: Strategy and Competitiveness

The state has played a significant role in shaping the global digital economy. This is both true in shaping the early influence of United States, Europe and Japan in introducing TRIPS within WTO. The thrust for a global regime of trade related intellectual property rights, which also includes copyright, was initiated chiefly by the United States of America in the eighth Uruguay round of GATT talks due to intense lobbying from its domestic knowledge based industries and with unequivocal support from Europe and Japan. The inclusion of TRIPS within the subsequent WTO framework has gone a long way in aligning and harmonizing intellectual property of most WTO member states with the US viewpoint. Subsequent state intervention within the specific national jurisdictions has proceeded in pace with the demands of WTO on its member countries. However, the state is increasingly being caught in the middle of a deeper struggle between the industries which have an analogic approach to developing business models as opposed to those who are more engaged in a digital approach to the development of business models. The digital economy, itself enabled by the growth of the knowledge oriented economy, brings with it many radically different assumptions. A nation's policy that governs the digital access to information is a pivotal source determining the forms of control that can be exercised over such access. New digital technology, enabled by the Internet, is imposing a fresh challenge to conventional copyright oriented models. Large copyright owning organizations argue that digital media allows for an increasing possibility for piracy. Providing higher protection standards is therefore necessary. This explicitly stated position led the US lawmakers into signing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. However the digital access to information is giving rise to new forms of organization and model creation. We would like to investigate the implications of such developments for the role of the state. Some of the issues that we would like to address are: 1. Does the digital economy promise radically newer approaches for the access of information and knowledge for the people at large?; 2. How can the state provide an adequate policy framework to foreground a digital development agenda?; 3. What are some implications for both industry and civil society for embracing a digital development agenda?