FOSS as the foundation of Digital Sovereignty

The demand for digital sovereignty is rising. Nations have realised that they run software they did not write, cannot see, and cannot control. People have realised that they need more control over their data and privacy. Spooked by the fear of a foreign kill switch, Europe launched EuroStack, a €300-billion, decade-long effort to build its own cloud, chips, AI, and digital identity.

India sits in a fascinating mirror position. It already built what Europe is now trying to assemble — open digital public infrastructure like UPI, Aadhaar, ONDC, and BHASHINI. Yet it shares Europe's deepest dependency at the foundation layer: chips, compute, cloud, and frontier AI models.

This talk maps the two journeys side by side. We'll see how Europe is regulation-rich but infrastructure-poor, why India is the reverse, and how open source and open standards are the common lever both are reaching for. Drawing on EuroStack, the EU Tech Sovereignty Package, and India's DPI story, attendees leave with a practical framework for judging any system through the lens of sovereignty, and actionable insights on fixing the problems.

• Two stories of sovereignty: strong rules without infrastructure (EU) vs. strong infrastructure without the foundation layer from India’s story. (Learning from real life examples gives beginner attendees a chance to understand things from level 0)

• The four freedoms of FOSS, mapped to four pillars of sovereignty: the right to inspect, modify, self-host, and not be cut off.

• How to spot "Sovereignty-washing" and how the EU Tech Sovereignty Package's cloud assurance levels try to reduce it.

• How to look for hidden lock-ins in your stack: not the app layer, but the compute, models, and weights underneath

• Concrete projects to contribute to or build on — Indian DPI and EU open-source efforts that need hands, not just applause