UKIBC submission to MeitY on the importance of digital

Following on from our recent webinar on The Importance of Data – Encouraging Innovation the UKIBC has made a submission to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Telecom (DoT).

This submission highlights the importance of having a diverse, vibrant and robust tech sector that can be drawn on to offer expertise and delivery capabilities to governments and citizens across sectors, and the need for collaboration between Governments and the tech sector.

Data and data regulation have been a key area of discussion for our sector advocacy group for the past year. The pandemic has emphasised the importance of data, appropriate data legislation, the need for the public and private sector to come together, and the importance of digital infrastructure to support society, businesses and the economy.

The UKIBC, as a collective voice not just for the digital and tech industry but also for businesses across all the sectors that rely on digital and data services, have made the following recommendations:

• The Government of India should work with business to develop and/or clarify a governance framework towards data collaboration that encourages innovation.
• The Government of India to review the draft Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill to incorporate learnings from the pandemic on data access and sharing. Cooperation between the private and public sectors is critical and this should be reflected in both the Personal Data Protection Law and the Non-Personal Data Committee’s report.
• The UK and Indian Governments should set up regulatory sandboxes and provide incentives for businesses and researchers to continually work towards developing technology for data collaboration in a safe and responsible manner.
• The Government of India should facilitate investments in digital infrastructure by providing a sustainable commercial environment, with a stable and predictive regulatory framework, to give private companies the confidence to invest, including FDI.
• The Government of India should permit increased use of digital delivery, for example in higher education by international universities as this will enable greater access to education by greater numbers of young, ambitious, Indians.

You can view the submission in full here.

The current situation gives Governments the opportunity to: review their existing data laws and ensure that they balance privacy, trust and innovation; revaluate their digital infrastructure; and ensure the policies and regulation are attractive for further investment.

In our webinar, industry experts from Trilegal, TCS and RELX not only shared some of their initiatives supporting society, industry and Government but also talked about key challenges being faced by each of these and how effective collaboration between the Public and Private sector can provide better solutions.

Following this submission, we will further engage with the relevant decision-makers to discuss how we can support the UK and Indian Governments with policy and regulatory challenges towards deeper collaboration between the public and private sector.

As ever, this will put our members and clients’ interests at heart, as we push to strengthen the UK-India bilateral relationship.