Ashwini vaishnaw

The parliamentary standing committee on IT has examined and approved the draft digital personal data protection bill (DPDPB), Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on March 2. “I would like to share some good news that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and communications, which is the committee which deals with this subject, before the bill is taken to the Parliament, have in advance examined it, and then given a big thumbs up,” Vaishnaw said at the Nasscom Technology Leadership Forum (NTLF) 2023. The government published the much-awaited draft digital personal data protection bill in November 2022. The revised bill focuses only on personal data, thereby doing away with regulating the use of non-personal data. The draft bill requires a data fiduciary -- ie an entity that processes user data -- to give an itemised notice to users on data sought to be collected in clear and plain language. It also mandates that the user should be allowed the right to give, manage, and … [Read more...] about Parliamentary panel has approved data protection bill, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met Japan's Minister for Digital Transformation Taro Kono and discussed cooperation in emerging technologies, India's digital public infrastructure and indigenous telecom stack. "Met the Digital Minister of Japan, Mr @konotaromp and discussed cooperation in emerging technologies & India's digital public infrastructure and India telecom stack," Vaishnaw tweeted. The Japanese minister appreciated India's digital payments system and development of the county's telecom stack. He also noted the vibrant innovation ecosystem in India that has led to a high number of patents in emerging technologies such as 6G. … [Read more...] about Ashwini Vaishnaw meets Digital Minister of Japan; co-operation in emerging tech, India’s digital public infra discussed

Microsoft Executive Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella lauded India for its own population-scale digital public goods and infrastructure. Google parent Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai hailed India’s pace at technological advancement extraordinary only two weeks back. Nadella was speaking at the Microsoft Future Ready Leadership Summit in Mumbai on January 3. “One of the things that's probably unbelievable, amazing, and great to see is India lead when it comes to digital public goods. India is building out digital infrastructure as a public good and that is a great example. India is building it out in a very enlightened way,” Nadella said while speaking about India’s National Language Translation Mission and Its own work in the language translation segment. “For whatever size uses, language translation should be a public good that should available to every company, every citizen of India,” he had added. Google’s Pichai who was here a couple of weeks back also met the Prime … [Read more...] about Microsoft’s Satya Nadella hails India’s lead in digital public goods and infrastructure

Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three- year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments, a senior government official said here. Department of Telecom Additional Secretary VL Kantha Rao told PTI at "India Evening" event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the India pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack. "When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout, we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years, a few towns and so on and so forth. I'm glad to say that in the first six months of 5G rollout, they have surpassed all the targets that we have given them for the next three years," Rao said. He said the rapid rollout of the 5G … [Read more...] about Indian telecom companies surpass 3-year 5G rollout target in six months: Govt official

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Two weeks after scores of lending platforms were banned on directions of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)which were flagged for alleged Chinese links, Minister of State for MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol that no decision the government takes is based on geography. The apps that are taken down are purely through the prism of user harm, security, or national sovereignty links and they are evaluated by different ministries, according to the minister. “These applications were evaluated and as is the normal course, they all have the right to appeal. If certain applications were taken down because of some infirmities, they are always allowed to appeal once those infirmities are cured. And that is a process that the government of India has always undertaken and will continue,” Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol in an interview. Orders had been given to block over 138 betting apps and 94 lending apps … [Read more...] about Rajeev Chandrasekhar on lending app ban: ‘No decision that govt takes is geography-based’

Bill Gates met Prajakta Koli during his India visit. (Image credit: thisisbillgates/Instagram) Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, who is visiting India, has had a packed itinerary so far, with a string of meetings and events to attend. On Wednesday, he met YouTuber and actor Prajakta Koli who was appointed as a member to an advisory group of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year. “And it’s always great to see Gates Foundation goalkeeper @mostlysane,” the Microsoft co-founder wrote on his Instagram Stories, sharing Koli’s photo on her Stories. The content creator has interviewed Gates for her “Real Talk” series on her YouTube channel. Koli is a member of the advisory group for Goalkeepers, a Gates Foundation initiative to accelerate progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals). She is part of the group for a period of two years. Koli was one of six YouTubers selected to cover the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at … [Read more...] about What Bill Gates said after meeting YouTuber Prajakta Koli