The exercise to introduce the Telecommunications Act and the Digital Data Protection Act is at a “very advanced stage” and is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the next monsoon session, Union Minister for Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
“The Prime Minister has given a very clear vision that there should be a legal framework for the Digitally Empowered Society. This exercise is very advanced work on the Telecom Bill, Digital Data Protection Bill and Digital India Bill,” Vaishnaw said at the Google for India event held in the national capital on Monday.
Furthermore, the minister added that two of the bills have already been put up for public consultation and the third bill, the Digital India Bill, will also be published very soon.
“We paid particular attention to the fact that all three bills should be easy to understand, technology-independent and future-proof,” added the minister. All three bills, he said, focus on how to secure the digital space.
In addition, referring to India’s digital adoption, Vaishnaw said that the people of India are embracing technology very quickly. It has a good effect in the country and is transferred to the startup ecosystem in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, towns and villages.
“At the same time, the focus is on how to give the new developments that are taking place a new form that meets the needs of society,” he added.
It happened earlier this month reported that the Digital Data Protection Act the central government is working on is likely to be introduced in the upcoming 2023-24 budget session.
In the monsoon session of Parliament on August 3, 2022, the government withdrew the data protection law with the aim of achieving comprehensive legislation. Union Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the joint parliamentary committee reviewing the original bill proposed 88 amendments to a 91-section bill, leading the government to decide there was “no other choice” than to withdraw the original bill entirely.
In November, the government presented another draft Digital Data Protection Bill and put it up for public consultation. There are currently over 76 million active internet users and this is expected to reach 120 million in the next few years.
