India’s union minister for law and justice, communications, electronics and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad delivered keynotes on the theme of big-tech and democracy, the global policy challenge at India Global Forum 2021.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad referred to India’s digital story as a remarkable story in his Q&A with Arnab Goswami, MD, Republic Media Net. He narrated the event when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was contesting to win the office of PM as the leader of India and BJP in 2014. He said that PM, Modi gave a vision, and he asked Indian citizens that if he is elected to power, he will create an India where IT + IT = IT.
“He explained that IT is India’s talent plus Technology is equal to IT, i.e. India Tomorrow. I am very happy to tell you, that we launch the digital India movement on the 1st of July 2015. India’s population is 1.3 billion, India is home to 1.29 billion Aadhar cards, digital identity to supplement the physical identity backed by law with due regard to privacy. India is home to 1.18 billion phones, out of which 100 million-plus are mobile phones,” said Union Minister Ram Prasad.
He explained how digital India has worked on the ground and has empowered ordinary Indians to the power of technology, bridge the digital divide, and most importantly brought in digital intrusion, for the poor and for the underprivileged.
He also mentioned that India has one of the cheapest internets in the world and that India has given a big movement to the digital payment movement.
He also spoke on how Indian’s were helped to adapt to work from home with the help of communication, IT and the postal department. Here, he highlighted the startup scenario in India stating that India has the biggest startup movement in the world, that India has 50,000 startups, the 3rd biggest in the world. Young people are changing the entire entrepreneur ecosystem, added Union Minister.
He spoke thoroughly on digital sovereignty, with regards to Twitter not complying with IT rules in the India issue. “He added that he is not in favour of censoring. But democracies must find a common ground on certain issues so that tech companies do their business, make profits, but become accountable by following the laws of the land. You operate in India, make money in India, make ad revenue in India, but say you are governed by the laws of America. When doing business in India you are accountable to India’s Constitution and India’s laws,” he said.
While saying this, he said that if democracy and big tech companies have to survive, the question is how do they synergise their digital operations globally with the digital sovereignty of respected nations? The solution has to be found, he said.
