India needs to minimise dependence on global internet networks: MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Restating the importance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making India a self-reliant nation, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said India should minimise its dependence on international internet networks.

Speaking at Business Today Crypto Conclave in New Delhi, the minister said that the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia has highlighted the importance of self-reliance when it comes to internet.

"One of the things that we've learned after looking at the Ukraine-Russia incident is that the internet can also become a tool of war. And the weaponisation of the internet has become something that is, at least to me...personally I'm a little disturbed that the internet can be seen to be taking sides and blockades of the internet can be imposed on one nation versus the other nation, and that in my opinion is extremely disturbing," Chandrasekhar said.

The current situation of the world shows that India needs to build more champions and have a much more resilient internet topology that depends less on the international players. "We need to minimise our dependence on international internet networks if you want to call it that. We need to be very careful about data localisation and cross-border data flows," he said.

Also Read: BT Crypto Conclave: India needs a new digital law, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Another area that he talked about was building capabilities against cybercrimes. "And one big area for me is the fact that intermediaries, especially big tech, who have gained so much from the internet, and who have constantly rallied against the government, whether it's Indian government or any other government, have done so little on the issue of safety on the internet, and cyber hacking or cyber incidents. So I think that area is a very important focus area. We are building upon capacities and tools. Of course, we have significant capacities and tools within the government," Chandrasekhar said.

The government is also exploring the need for global rulemaking as the criminal, crime and the victim are almost always or very often in three different jurisdictions on the internet. There is no one law that can capture the entire chain of the event of the incident, he said. 

"So having more and more global rulemaking, more and more global protocols which allow countries to interact, work together...sort of let us say Singapore and India, or India and Australia, India and US-- all collaborating within a cyber incident. I think that is an additional feature of the model that we are hoping to develop," he added.

Also Read: No ban on owning crypto assets in India: Rajeev Chandrasekhar