India & “Digital Strike”: the Underlying Mechanics

India & “Digital Strike”: the Underlying Mechanics Financial Times had a piece about how India has decided that they will no longer allow several Chinese apps to operate within the borders of India. I want to talk about the underlying mechanics of what's happening here. India is doing this because it wants to achieve something, which they think can be accomplished by creating an environment that is not conducive for apps from certain countries. So the question is: What does India need, and who is getting punished for this action? Someone is always getting punished when you take legislative action. That's the nature of economics; there's not enough to go around, so any decision you make is about deciding who will benefit and who won’t. India, like any other nation, needs capital, expertise and creativity. India has banned those apps from the market because they believe that they can get funding, expertise and creativity from other countries and within their own borders—homegrown competitors. Because certain nations are close competitors, India doesn’t want them to benefit from their large consumer market. Here’s the question: Should you be turning away any capital, any expertise or any creativity? That’s what government of India needs to think about. In a world that is fighting…