The Union
government is expected to hold a multi-stakeholder meeting soon to discuss key
aspects of the Digital India Bill before bringing it up for public scrutiny,
sources said.
The meetings, which are scheduled to be held in
Hyderabad, are expected to see the participation of leaders from various
companies including Meta Inc, Google, Microsoft and others, sources told ET.
The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is now
operational, which will replace the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000.
According to sources, the new law will be a
comprehensive system that can introduce provisions related to data protection,
online gambling, cyberbullying, doxing and other cybercrimes. It can also
introduce provisions to classify and organize different online channels such as
e-commerce websites and AI-assisted platforms, among others.
“The law should be looking. It will have
elements that help in the development of the executive order as time and
technology change and progress," said a senior official.
Last year, the IT Department withdrew a draft
of the data protection bill after stalling in Parliament for more than three
years. ET was the first to report in February 2022 that the IT Department could
draft an entirely new type of data protection bill.
The new version, renamed the Digital Personal
Data Protection (DPDP) Bill of 2022, was introduced in November. All
regulations may be moved under the umbrella of the Digital India Act after the
law is finalized, government officials said.