Digital India Act to be a catalyst in innovations for next 10 years, Bill to be tabled in July: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Keeping up with new age technology disruptions, the Digital India Act will be a catalyst in key innovations for the next 10 years, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Thursday.
“Technology is disrupting so rapidly. There is AI (Artificial Intelligence). There is AI compute, blockchain, there are all types of big disruptive changes underway. That is a time that this legislation has been brought. So this legislation has to be future-ready and it has to be future-proof,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
The Digital India Act legislation will address future technology innovation needs for at least next 10 years and work as a catalyst for the entire ecosystem that will protect consumers while being future-proof and future-ready.
Union MoS, who held the first-ever consultation on the proposed Digital India Act and discussed rules to handle data, maintained that the final draft will be ready for consultation by next month (April) and Centre plans to table the Bill in the Parliament by July. Chandrasekhar maintained that the draft of the Digital India Act will be firmed up after two more rounds of discussion with stakeholders.
“We have undertaken for the first time ever consultation around the principal architectural design of legislation. The outcome of this consultation will be a draft. The draft in turn will be consulted extensively for a period that will be not less than 45 to 60 days,” Chandrasekhar said.
The minister hoped that the new legislation will be in place later this year. While pointing out that the new proposed Bill will safeguard data, it will also act as a key for online privacy. He also sought a wider perspective on the Digital India Act from key stakeholders that may help in drafting a stringent regulation for privacy invasive devices.
“I have put down many points. What should be the law’s response to invasive devices like these camera eyeglasses? When somebody with a camera item walks into a room and starts filming you, how should the law deal with that,” Chandrasekhar asked.
The Digital India Act was proposed by the Centre last year keeping in mind the changing role of technology amid data protection worries. Also amid growing influence of US BigTech companies across the innovation landscape, many countries have pushed in new regulations in the technology sector in recent times. The Digital India Act in India will replace the IT Act, 2000.
“The complexity comes from the proliferation of new platforms, new devices, and now with 5G, 6G and with IoT, the complexity of the internet is 100-fold more from what it was just five years ago. So the DIA has to deal with that. Detailed answers will come in the draft,” Chandrasekhar said.