Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

If you follow technology policy in India, you’ve no doubt heard about the rather intimidating line-up of new digital regulations currently on the drawing board. The Digital India Act, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the Telecom Act, new guidelines for artificial intelligence (AI)—the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), under whose ambit all these projects fall, is a busy place these days. 

All this may confuse you, and to be honest, I understand. There have been a lot of developments related to technology regulation coming out of the ministry of late. 

For this week’s Tech x Policy, however, I want to zoom into what’s happening with (arguably) the most ambitious of these legislations—the Digital India Bill—the first draft of which will be released in the first week of June, according to Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Because the way things stand, it’s in danger of becoming a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. 

What’s the rush with the Digital India Act?

Last year in April, Chandrasekhar announced that his ministry was working on a draft of the Digital India Bill and that the ministry’s proposals would be released the next month, i.e., May 2022. A little while later, I asked a government official about the progress made on draft and was nearly laughed at. 

That’s been kind of the theme with this bill ever since—uncertainty, doubt, with little to no knowledge on progress. At least until March this year, when the ministry held its first public consultations, which allowed for some discussion on what the bill aims to do/should aim to do and how. Then yesterday, the second such consultation was held, and there was another presentation on what the bill aims to achieve. 

In a nutshell, its objective will be to ensure that the internet is kept open and fair, protect users from harms, and govern intermediaries in a graded, principle-based approach. In the words of Chandrasekhar, while the government would like to regulate “big platforms”, it doesn’t want to impose the “slightest road bump” on innovative startups. 

A graded approach is something many have argued for: