Expressing concern more than the new privacy policy of WhatsApp on sharing industrial user information with parent Facebook, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday categorically stated sanctity and privilege of private communications require to be maintained.
Responding to a query by The Indian Express Group’s executive director Anant Goenka at the 15th India Digital Summit organised by IAMAI, Prasad stated all digital corporations are totally free to operate in India but without having impinging upon the rights of Indians. “This is an issue that my department is working on, and being the final authority, it will not be proper for me to make comments, except to flag one thing very clearly, be it WhatsApp, be it Facebook, be it any digital platform, you are free to do business in India but do it in a manner without impinging upon the rights of Indians who operate here,” Prasad stated.
Citing examples, Prasad stated a medical doctor speaking to his patient, a lawyer speaking to his client or a family members speaking amongst every other on a WhatsApp group are all privileged communications and the sanctity of that desires to be respected.
This is the 1st time that the minister spoke on the new privacy policy of the preferred encrypted messaging app WhatsApp which has earned a big backlash, so a lot so that the business, which was to implement the policy from February 8, has place it on hold till May 15.
While performing every little thing to safeguard information privacy, Prasad stated he desires India to come to be a significant centre of information economy. He stated the nation has the possible to come to be a information refinery exactly where cleaning, processing and innovation of information can take place. “So many new data centres are coming up in the private sector. Data economy must prosper in India by developing a complete ecosystem in this regard,” the minister stated. He, nevertheless, stated, as information is linked to digital sovereignty of the nation, it have to be procured by way of consent and on a voluntary basis and have to be applied for the objective for which it has been collected and the information fiduciary who procures the information have to make sure correct security and sanctity of the information.
“I do acknowledge the implicit need of the data movement across the globe to keep digital commerce intact but the ground rule is that the movement must be clearly laid out. There must be reciprocity of data sharing and we shall never compromise on data sovereignty,” Prasad stated. He also stated the Data Protection Bill is below examination by the choose committee of Parliament and after the report comes, it will be speedy-tracked for Parliament’s approval.
Speaking on 5G, the minister asked Indian players to develop an Indian 5G model. “As far as 5G is concerned, it is still evolving. We missed 2G and 3G but we don’t want to miss 5G. Therefore, we developed an Indian test bed, and IITs are involved, so that all innovative aspects of 5G can be considered. 5G must be developed in order to enable inclusive character of its processes for healthcare, education, farming. India’s appetite for 5G will be overpowering as a good commercial enterprise,” he stated.
On the production-linked incentive scheme for domestic handset manufacturing, Prasad stated it was launched in the course of the height of the pandemic in April 2020 and in spite of that all the leading corporations have applied with commitment to make mobile phones worth `10 lakh crore in the coming 5 years, of which Rs 7 lakh crore is for exports.
“India is today the hub of mobile manufacturing and this process is irreversible…India must become the biggest manufacturing centre of laptops, of machine-to-machine equipment, of tablets etc. I want to develop that ecosystem for mobile phones and smartphones to laptops, tablets and IoT devices. India must become a huge centre of these equipment manufacturing,” he stated.
On participation of Chinese corporations in providing their merchandise in India, Prasad stated it would not be prudent or desirable for him to take the name of any nation except to highlight the basic policy initiative which the nation is following. “Yes, we banned some apps because the issue was data privacy, the issue was national security, the issue was national sovereignty. Therefore, in any exposure of companies, the national security angle will also be taken, be it private or government. As far as the relevant financial routes are concerned, some changes have also taken place with regard to countries having physical adjacency with India,” he stated.