Digital India Act Will Harmonise Everything Going On Tech: MoS Chandrasekhar

Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said Digital India Act (DIA) bring a harmony to everything happening in the tech space of the country and will provide a strong legal framework for protecting the rights of the digital users.

Speaking on DIA’s Safety & Trust, the Minister said “Safety and Trust will be at the heart of the DIA, and it is going to be a huge section in the DIA. Online harm is also being dealt with by regulators globally.”

Chandrasekhar added that DIA will allow sectoral regulators such as RBI and SEBI and other ministries to create additional safeguards.

He emphasised that as government services also move online, it would be important to ensure that Indians approached the internet without any fear and mistrust.  

Chandrasekhar highlighted that weaponisation of misinformation and disinformation was a major concern that needed to be addressed, especially with the added catalyst of AI-driven deepfakes.

“AI will be regulated through the prism of user harm. The objective is to ensure that emerging technologies should not cause any harm to Digital Nagariks,” he added.

He encouraged industry to suggest guardrails for blockchain and Web 3.0. “We will not ban anything in the innovation space, unless it is linked with user harm. We want to lead the charge in Web 3.0 and in AI--with guardrails defined. I am not a big fan of regulators in the sense that it shouldn’t create another layer of compliance,” Chandrasekhar said.