There will be multiple intermediaries defined in upcoming digital laws: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

In India's upcoming digital laws the government will be defining different types of intermediaries, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on October 27.

Speaking on the sidelines of the India Space Congress, Chandrasekhar while responding to a query by Moneycontrol said, "Everything that sits on the internet will be an intermediary. There will be different types of intermediary, e-commerce intermediary or social media intermediary. There will be multiple intermediaries defined."

The Indian government is currently working on a complete overhaul of the country's digital laws ecosystem.

They are working on the Digital India Act, slated to be the successor the Information Technology Act 2000; Data Protection Bill, whose previous version was withdrawn by the government recently and so on.

Earlier, Union minister of electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that drafting of the new data protection bill is nearly complete and the government is aiming to introduce it in parliament by next year's budget session, said.

Chandrasekhar, on October 27, also said that the draft of the data protection bill will be out 'very soon'. He also informed that that the amendments to the IT Rules were currently with the law ministry.

While addressing the audience during the India Space Congress event Chandrasekhar conceded that broadband and wireless internet had its limitations.

"Sometimes broadband, wireless has limitations. Satellite is clearly emerging as the inherent part of the blueprint of delivering internet to all citizens, enterprises of India," he said.

"It will play an important role to enable internet connectivity to 1.2 billion Indians by 2025-26,” he added.

Chandrasekhar also said that space and satellite sector will have interesting use cases that will catalyse startups in the Indian ecosystem.

Also addressing the event was Arvind Kumar, Director General – Software Technology Park of India (STPI). Kumar stressed that data has to be shared with startups for working in the space technology sector.

STPI is incubating various startups who are working towards creating solutions using Sat-Com, he informed adding that ease of doing business (EoDB) has to be improved in the space sector.

He also urged the Department of Space to work with the STPI and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, to further this sector.

Speaking at the India Space Congress 2022, R Umamaheswaran, Director – Human Space Flight Centre, ISRO, said, “The opening up of the space industry post the reforms have seen an increased participation by private players in the space industry. However, we need to keep in mind the growth of the electronics industry is key to the growth of the space industry.