Page 11 - It Ministry

Tech needs responsible regulations and certainty in legal framework: Pichai

He said India as an export economy will benefit from an open and connected internet

No separate law yet to regulate digital media, says IT Ministry

There is no proposal yet to enact a separate law to regulate the digital media, and the matter is currently under consideration, said the Ministry of Electronics and IT on Friday

'Rules in place', says Rajeev Chandrasekhar on regulation of online gaming

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Friday said rules on the regulation of online gaming were in place

AIIMS cyber attack originated in China, all servers retrieved now: MoHFW

AIIMS cyber attack: The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police on November 25 had registered a case of extortion and cyber terrorism

IT rule tweak likely if social media firms abuse power: Chandrasekhar

The latest stance by the minister follows a series of confrontations between the government and Twitter over the moderation of user-generated content on the platform

Draft Digital India Bill to be available for public consultation by Dec-end

After the draft data protection bill, the government is now all set to bring another key legislation -- Digital India Bill -- that will be made available for public consultation by the month-end, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Thursday. The Digital India Bill, which will replace the 22-year old Information Technology (IT) Act, will be contemporary and a modern piece of legislation, the Minister promised. The proposed bill, alongside the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill whose draft was released recently, will contribute to the evolving framework which is light on regulation, safeguards consumer rights and catalyses innovation, the minister said while speaking at CII Global Economic Policy Summit 2022. Chandrasekhar further informed that Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for 'wearables' is in the offing. He termed wearables as among the fastest growing segment in the electronics space. On the proposed Digital India Act, he said it will deal w

More than 1,750 mn Aadhaar authentications done in October 2022: UIDAI

So far, over 1,100 welfare schemes in the country run by both centre and states have been notified to use Aadhaar

Data regulation provision to be included in new Digital India Act

The government plans to include data regulation provisions in a new Digital India Act, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday. While speaking at an event at Foreign Correspondent Club on 5G, Chandrasekhar said the recently issued draft of Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) focuses on the protection of data of Indian citizens. It (DPDP) does not intend to appoint a regulator and create regulation for the data ecosystem. That is down the road when we create a new bill for Digital India Act. This is a bill which narrowly focuses on data protection of consumers, Chandrasekhar said. The government has issued a draft of a new data protection bill after it withdrew the previous version of the bill from the Lok Sabha in August citing several overlapping rules in the modified version of the bill. Talking about 5G, the minister said that the next-generation technology is based on open technology ecosystem which provides India with an opportunity to

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw counters criticism around proposed DPDP Bill

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday allayed concerns over the extent of independence of the government-appointed oversight body proposed in the draft data protection Bill, saying just like RBI and SEBI the architecture of the new body will ensure its autonomy on issues. Vaishnaw, who was speaking at Times Now Summit 2022 also countered criticism around the draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill and questions around surveillance and said the risk of terrorist threats and cyber threats, as well as the changing nature of global warfare have to be kept in mind. These realities have to be considered, and a balanced view has to be taken. Supreme Court, he said, has set clear processes on surveillance, with many checks and balances. To questions being raised on just how independent the proposed Data Protection Board will be, the minister made it clear that independence and autonomy come from law, and cited the strong reputation enjoyed by RBI, SEBI, all over the world. Sin

Modified data protection bill to bring ease for startup ecosystem: Experts

MeitY on Friday released a draft version of the much-awaited data protection law, in the fourth such effort since it was first proposed in July 2018

NASSCOM research group to come up with standards for data anonymisation

'Unfiltered access not advisable', says CEO of Data Security Council of India

VLC Media Player returns to India as MeitY lifts ban on VideoLAN website

The VideoLAN website was blocked by MeitY for communicating with servers of a previously banned app, Onmyoji Arena

Digital India Act framework draft to be out by 2023: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

A significant amount of work has been done on proposed Digital India Act, and the draft legislative framework to support 'India's techade' is expected by early 2023, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said. The comments assume significance as India is moving swiftly towards a strong framework to catalyse its digital ambitions and govern online ecosystem, with openness, user safety and trust as the guiding principles. At the same time, the government has asserted that extensive consultation will go into framing key legislations which are going to be essential building blocks for 'new India' and its digital architecture. Asked about the status of Digital India Act, which will replace the IT Act, Chandrasekhar said: "A significant amount of work has been done on it, and we expect that in early 2023, under PM's leadership, a legislative framework for India's techade will be placed in front of the country." The minister asserted that the government intends to have detaile

Conflicting businesses

Elon Musk's other interests may affect Twitter

'IT rules give 72 hours but remove illegal content as fast as possible'

IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said while social media norms require platforms to remove illegal content within 72 hours of being flagged, he feels the timelines are "too long" and platforms should takedown such content "as fast as possible". Chandrasekhar said the IT Ministry had been keen on prescribing a 24-hour timeline for removal of illegal content (as specified under rules) given that "virality and velocity" of misinformation tends to be much higher, but then finally settled for 72 hours after wide consultations. "Frankly I am of the opinion that 72 hours is too long...it was 24 hours during consultation, but it was widely felt that this is still early days and let us keep it at 72 hours and then progressively as the platforms gain capacity and capability, we will create a shorter window," the minister said. His message to social media platforms: "Letter of IT rules says 72 hours but the spirit should be as fast as possible". The complaints around illegal conte

'Scope of appellate panels for social media grievance to be announced soon'

IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said the modalities defining the structure and scope of Grievance Appellate Committees will be worked out soon, and hoped that their formation will, in fact, discourage social media platforms from continuing with their "casual" and "tokenism" approach to address user grievances. The government on Friday tightened IT rules, paving the way for the setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters. The government says that the "broken" grievance redressal mechanism currently being offered by intermediaries (read social media platforms) and lakhs of messages flagging users' concerns around unresolved complaints had forced its hand. "Grievance Appellate Committee will be an important institution in the coming days for internet and intermediaries. We will make an announcement about its structure, .

Govt has its way on social media grievance redress; GACs to be formed

This comes with MeitY notifying on Friday the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022, after five months of deliberations

Reasons to block must be recorded, communicated to users: Twitter to HC

The high court was hearing the plea challenging the blocking of 39 URLs by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2021

Govt focused on enhancing Internet penetration: IT Minister Chandrasekhar

Union Minister of State for Electronics & IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday said that the Centre is undertaking various collaborative measures to enhance "underlying technologies like microelectronic and semiconductor to increase Internet penetration".

IT Ministry seeks response from WhatsApp for cause of Tuesday's outage

The IT Ministry is learnt to have asked Meta-owned WhatsApp to share reasons behind Tuesday's service outage of the messaging platform. WhatsApp services snag on Tuesday had left users complaining about not being able to send or receive text and video messages, and services had resumed after nearly two hours. Sources said the IT Ministry has asked the company to share reasons on what caused the WhatsApp outage. An email sent to WhatsApp on the issue did not elicit a response. In a late night statement on Tuesday, WhatsApp said a "technical error" caused the outage. "The brief outage was a result of a technical error on our part and has now been resolved," a Meta company spokesperson had said. According to Downdetector, which tracks outage reports, the messaging app was not working for many users across multiple regions on Tuesday afternoon. At one point during the outage on Tuesday, over 29,000 reports were flagged by users on Downdetector. Downdetector's heatmap was showing What