Panjab University alumnus Amandeep Singh Gill appointed as UN chief's Envoy on Technology

New Delhi, June 11

Senior Indian diplomat and Panjab University alumnus Amandeep Singh Gill beat a crowded field to become effectively the UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s first Envoy on Technology. He replaced Italian and EU diplomat Maria-Francesca Spatolisano who was in an acting capacity for the past five months pending the selection of a full-time envoy.

Selection criteria for the job were stiff, with many of the skills sought not in the armory of conventional diplomats. Launching its hunt for a full-time envoy on January 27 this year, the UN had sought a person experienced in multi-stakeholder approach for policy development, possessing a solid understanding of the UN as well as strong familiarity with the Internet architecture and infrastructure.

Gill made the cut because of the familiarity with the subject. He co-led Guterres’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation for two years and is serving as the head of a UN-funded collaborative project on digital health and AI in Geneva. He was India’s Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (2016-2018).

A Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Electrical Communications from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Gill joined the diplomatic service in 1992. Besides stints in Tehran and Colombo, he has largely specialised in disarmament, strategic technologies and international security affairs. He was also involved with the National Task Force on AI and the Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapon systems.

A UN panel in 2019 had asked for a tech envoy who “could identify over-the-horizon concerns that need improved cooperation or governance and work with UN member states, civil society and businesses to support compliance with agreed norms”.

Gill will advise the senior UN leadership on key trends in technology, so as to guide the strategic approach on such issues. He will also serve as an advocate and focal point for digital cooperation so that all stakeholders will have a first port of call for the broader UN system, said the Association for Progressive Cooperation which backed the setting up of this position. The APC sees the Tech Envoy’s role as central to promoting improved coordination and synergy among different spaces and processes concerning Internet governance and global digital cooperation.