Govt wants to keep internet open, safe & accountable: Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

“Internet is an important platform for us, where 80 crore Indians use it. In the next 2-3 years, this number will go up to 120 crore and will comprise women, children and elderly. So, it is the duty and unrelenting objective of the Government of India that the internet remains open, safe, trusted and accountable,” he added.

When asked if the data protection laws will adversely affect corporate entities, the minister, who is on a three-day visit to Gujarat, said, “Good work can happen through the internet and bad things can also happen. So, we have issued cyber security laws to make the internet a safe and trusted place. This is for the betterment of the country. The only restriction is that if a VPN (virtual private network) is used or misused for criminal activities, the VPN operators have to cooperate and produce the data of who has done the criminal activity.”

Speaking about the shortage of semiconductors in India, Chandrasekhar said, “The spike in usage of digital products and digitisation during Covid pandemic has caused a disruption in the semiconductors supply chain. So, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December announced a Rs 76,000 crore semiconductor package and we held a conference on semiconductors for the first time in India this April. The leaders who came to this conference were of the opinion that India will become a hub for semiconductors.”

During the MSME event organised by NASSCOM, the Union minister inaugurated the “world’s first Smart Manufacturing Competency Centre” in Ahmedabad to help accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing by India’s best innovators.