India-Africa Cooperation in the Digital Age: Navigating Privacy Protection and Emerging Challenges in the Global South

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-426-6_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital Landscape; Global South; data protection; African Union and data privacy

Abstract

India, which collaborates with the developing countries and boosting representation around the world, has continued to stand by the Global South. By advocating the inclusion of Africa in international fora (like the G20), India is making a robust contribution to empower Africa. Another example of India’s allegiance to the Global South is its extensive cooperation with African countries. With the accelerating digital change taking place over the Global South, there has been greater synergetic digital partnership between India and the African states in Technology, Trade, Governance, and Cyber-security. Yet this shift into the digital realm brings along urgent challenges in terms of cyber security, data protection and regulation. As fintech, e-governance, and digital public infrastructure strengthens the digital links between Africa and India, the demand for stronger systems of privacy protection will only rise. Data protection remains one of the most top concerns amidst the new wave in the direction of India-Africa digital partnerships. This paper touches upon the newer contours taking shape in Indo-Africa digital partnership, the data protection legislative framework and its feasibility.

However, differences in regulatory frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and technology create challenges for such agreements even though both regions have adopted legislation to protect digital rights (Reis, 2024). These should get inspiration from existing laws such as the Data Protection Act, India and legal frameworks such as the African Union convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection. The study also highlights topics such as data protection, cybersecurity and risks of the use of AI. The paper highlights a few practical avenues for a collaboration between India and African countries to establish a shared digital privacy strategy that is both protective and promotes economic and technological development, based on a review of policy studies. Therefore, to reinforce their relationship it is important to create strong bilateral engagement and robust multilateral engagement like G20 to build more resilient an inclusive digital future.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Pooja Kapoor
AU  - Deepali Rani Sahoo
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/06
TI  - India-Africa Cooperation in the Digital Age: Navigating Privacy Protection and Emerging Challenges in the Global South
BT  - Proceedings of the National Seminar on Enhancing Privacy Protection in the Digital Age: Legal Challenges & Innovations (NSEPPDA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 182
EP  - 196
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-426-6_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-426-6_11
ID  - Kapoor2025
ER  -