New Delhi, Aug. 9 -- "The future of democracy will not be decided only in Parliament or at the ballot box. It will increasingly be decided in the invisible architecture of algorithms, data and artificial intelligence. The challenge is not to resist technology, but to ensure that technology never governs democracy more than democracy governs technology."

Political movements once began with pamphlets, public meetings and speeches. Today, they begin with a notification.

A hashtag trends, a video goes viral and a message spreads through encrypted groups. Within hours, thousands of strangers connected not by geography but by algorithms, become participants in a common political cause. The smartphone has quietly become the defining democratic...