India will chart its own course on the future of internet: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Differing from the view that Europe's data protection rule is a gold standard, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said India will chart its own course for the future of internet, according to an official statement released on Wednesday.

The minister during a session with UAE minister Omar Sultan Al Olama at the India Global Forum in Dubai said with more than 820 million internet users, India has the largest presence on global internet and deserves an opportunity to shape its own destiny.

"European GDPR is considered a gold standard for privacy and data protection. But we would like to disagree. With more than 820 million internet users, we have the largest presence on global internet and deserve an opportunity to shape our own destiny. We will chart our own course and build a framework suitable for us," Chandrasekhar said.

The minister said that the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is now open for consultations.

"Protecting the digital rights of our citizens is an obligation of the government. But we do not see this as a binary at the expense of slowing down the ecosystem for innovation that exists in India and in partnerships with other countries," he said.

The minister said that the government would not strongly regulate the internet but is committed to the principles of open, safe and trusted and accountable internet. He added that India stack has helped build trust between the government and its citizens.

"It has removed bottlenecks and ensured transfer of governments funds to beneficiaries easy. The India stack is open for other countries to adopt too. It represents an opportunity for global south or countries that have not been able to afford the digitalisation to rapidly climb up the ladder of digitalisation," he said.

Commending India for India stack, Olama said that India did not emulate anyone and created its own path that many others are emulating.

"A country (of) the size of India was able to implement something that (is) cutting edge in less than a decade, I cannot state how incredible that is," he said.