Mumbai, March 9 The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is awaiting industry input on its plans to shorten the timeline for data protection compliance before making a final decision on the matter, a top government official said on Monday.
The official also said that the central government had not seen the Karnataka government's proposal to ban the use of social media for children under 16, but added that issues like social media or online gaming fall within the purview of national jurisdiction and will need to be addressed separately.
"We have been consulting with the industry on this (shortening the timeline) aspect. We have had some consultations. We are awaiting their input, and once we receive it, we will make a final decision," S Krishnan, Secretary in the MeitY, told reporters here on the sidelines of the 85th Public Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) here.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is said to have proposed to reduce the compliance window under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) rules to 12 months from 18 months for significant data fiduciaries.
Large tech firms and many large companies already comply with stringent data protection standards in many other markets, including the General Data Protection Regulation (the European Union's data privacy and security law), and this has prompted discussions about faster implementation of the new rules in India.
"Social media or online gaming – all of these are matters that fall within national jurisdiction, and which we will need to address separately. We have not yet seen the legislation. We will need to see whether it falls within the competence of the respective state government, and we will need to see how exactly the legislative competence works," Krishnan said.
Responding to a question on concerns in certain quarters about entire domains (websites) being blocked, and whether there was any regulation, he said, "We are acting under existing laws and regulations. If there is a specific case, we will act accordingly."
Stating that it is very important for India to be actively involved in internet governance, he said that the number of internet users in India has grown significantly, and "currently, we have more than a billion internet users in India."
Hosting events like ICANN85 gives the country a good opportunity to discuss with global stakeholders because internet governance is based on a multi-stakeholder approach, he added, saying, "in addition to governance, we have international organizations, we have civil society organizations, academia, technical groups, technical bodies, all of them (at one platform)."
"It is important that in India, we also encourage greater participation from all these groups to ensure that our voice is clearly heard and that the billion internet users in India are clearly represented in this forum because we need to preserve their privacy, their safety, their security, and the security of all transactions that take place," Krishnan stated.
India's key concerns on internet governance are greater inclusion and that more people should be able to use it, he said, adding, "it should be available in all languages of the country, and access to the internet regardless of language..."
The country has actually achieved a significant goal in inclusion, with the number of internet users rising to more than a billion currently from 200 million in 2014, though there is still some room for improvement, and we need to ensure that there is safety, resources and security on the internet, he said.