Task for new IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Source – The Indian Express

Relevance: This article enumerates the challenges that the new IT minister must solve at priority.

Synopsis – The most pressing problems and challenges that the new IT Minister must address.

Introduction –

• Recently, the Union Cabinet witnessed a reshuffle. Ashwini Vaishnaw was appointed Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Railways, and Communication.
• As IT minister, he has enormous hurdles, including new IT rules, personal data privacy legislation, internet access, and internet shut down.

Challenges in front of new IT minister-

• First, Access to the internet in rural areas- Despite the number of internet users has been growing rapidly, there is still a large rural population with no access to the internet.
  • Rural-urban gap in internet penetration – Rural penetration rate not even one-third of the urban penetration rate. Around 37,439 villages are still not covered by telecom service providers.
  • The Government initiative also lacking to fulfill their target. For example-
    • Bharat Net program aims to have an optical fiber network in all gram panchayats. However, the project has regularly missed all its deadlines, while the expenses are rising.
    • National Digital Literacy Mission also witnessed slow progress.

• Second, the Frequent Internet shut down by the government- India and Myanmar were responsible for the longest internet shutdowns in 2019 and 2020. In India, the total economic loss due to internet shutdown was around $2.4
  • The amendments to the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017 also fall short to promote active compliance.

• Third, issues related to the new IT rule- The IT Rules, 2021 have faced significant criticism on several grounds, such as it creates lots of uncertainty and dispute. The new IT rule lacks a comprehensive digital governance framework.
• Forth, Curb data breaches- Another significant concern is the increasing number of data breaches. In India, the average data breach cost Rs 14 crore in 2020, up 9.4 percent from 2019.
  • The average time to discover and control a breach has increased dramatically. This signifies a significant amount of information and data loss for users.

What needs to be done?

• Updating the IT Act- There is a need to draw up a comprehensive new framework for digital governance in India.
  • The process for updating the IT Act, 2000 must be made public. This required consultations with stakeholders as well as the creation of a draft report on the Act’s future based on technical and legal input.

• Address the digital divide – The digital divide must be bridged urgently, not just by extending India’s digital infrastructure, but also by emphasizing complete digital literacy.
• The Ministry must provide more openness and accountability in the blocking process, beginning with the proactive publication of shutdown orders.
• It is necessary to provide statutory measures for data security and strengthen the powers of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team to enact proactive action against data breaches.