The Government on Wednesday said that it was revisiting the Information Technology Act, 2000, to upgrade some laws and regulations, including privacy, as many new technologies have changed over the last 20 years and a committee is also being created to look after it.

“A thinking is going on in the Department to review of the IT Act 2000. It has been 20 years to the IT Act now and the IT ecosystem has developed beyond recognition. Technology has taken over a lot in the last 20 years, the whole ecosystem of consumers has changed and so the challenges,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, and Law & Justice, told reporters here.

He said the new Act will also factor-in issues like Supreme Court’s judgment on privacy and protection.

“It will also factor into large issues of Supreme Court judgment on privacy – on the issue of data protection. However, the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill will be purely on data...this (the changes in IT Act) will be for IT – operations, administrations, cyber security, and cyber crime,” Prasad said.

He said the biggest challenges in the cyber world today is the number of users, which has become humongous, as the use of technology has also become the centre of payments, delivery of services like the Goods and Services Tax, UPI. So, that raises the question of misuse too, he added.

Intermediary Guidelines

Prasad said that a balance has to be struck which is why the Intermediary Guidelines is also work in progress where the government is balancing both number of users and use of technology so that the Internet platform is not abused by a few.

The Intermediary Guidelines, which is expected to come anytime soon, is right now being reviewed at the Law Ministry for ‘fine-tuning’ with the IT Ministry, a senior official said.

Meanwhile, Prasad, who also met Microsoft Chief Satya Nadella and informed that he has conveyed a message that India will not compromise on data sovereignty, said that Nadella was ‘fully supportive’ of it and said India should show the lead to the world.

Nadella also complimented Prasad on the success of digital inclusion through the Digital India programme and appreciated India’s efforts to create public digital goods like India Stack, said Prasad. India Stack is an unique programme that allows governments, businesses, start-ups and developers to utilise digital infrastructure to solve the country’s hard problems towards presence-less, paperless, and cashless service delivery.

Prasad also suggested that Microsoft should consider adopting some digital villages out of the one-lakh that the government has proposed to set up, and mentor them to make them beacons.

comment COMMENT NOW