WE WILL SET THE BOUNDARY AND EVERYBODY SHOULD PLAY WITHIN THOSE

INTERVIEW Rajeev Chandrasekhar minister of state for electronics & IT

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

Q. From the intermediary rules to the upcoming Data Protection Bill and Digital India Act, the government is aiming to bring some order into the chaotic digital landscape in India.

A. India has become the preeminent nation using technology in governance. India Stack is a powerful globally recognised symbol of Indian innovation, with Aadhaar and UPI creating an entire ecosystem of their own. An interesting fallout has been that India’s innovation ecosystem is now one of the fastest growing in the world. As the prime minister said, the next decade can be India’s ‘Tech’ade!

[But] if you look at the framework, we have a 22-year-old Information Technology (IT) Act. The challenges that the internet and the technology space represents today are far more challenging and the changing nature of technology far more disruptive, leading to the need of a new framework. The first element of that is the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. Second [is] the Digital India Act (DIA), essentially a successor to the IT Act, and there [will be] other elements, like the Telecom Bill and Cyber Security Acts. But the two underpinning legislations are the DIA that is in the pipeline and the Data Protection Bill which is around the corner.

Q. What were the concern points that led to these new laws?

A. The internet of 2022 is dramatically different, qualitatively, quantitatively and substantively, from the internet of 2010 or 2019. The challenges and opportunities are very different. Therefore, the laws have to be contemporaneous with those challenges and opportunities.