Last year, Nayara Energy — one of India’s largest oil-refining companies — received a notice that should have alarmed every policymaker in Delhi. Microsoft informed the company that it might have to discontinue its cloud services, citing US sanctions compliance obligations arising from Nayara’s Russian shareholder, Rosneft. Nayara was operating within Indian law. Its refinery is on Indian soil. But the digital infrastructure on which it ran its operations was leased from a company headquartered in Redmond, Washington — and was, therefore, subject to American law. The threat was not ultimately executed, but India had just glimpsed what digital dependence looks like when geopolitics turns hostile. [Read more…]