India is the largest ‘connected’ nation with more than 800 million broadband users: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The India Internet Governance Forum 2022 (IIGF2022), a multistakeholder platform that concluded on 11th December, was a three-day event which started from 9th Dec till 11th Dec 2022. At the forum, the focus was on issues related to the past, present and future of the internet. IIGF was conducted jointly by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), NIXI and Multistakeholder Group. The theme of IIGF 2022 was ‘Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat.’

The event was focused on discussing the roadmap to digitization and reaffirming India as an essential participant on the global stage by highlighting its role and importance in international policy development on internet governance. Through an open and inclusive process, IIGF brings together all stakeholders in the global internet governance ecosystem, including government, industry, civil society, academia - as equal participants of the larger Internet Governance discourse. This event was focused on the digitization roadmap, opportunities and possibilities, and challenges in India, besides positioning it as the global leader in the domain by highlighting its role and importance in the International Policy development on Internet Governance.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Hon’ble MOS MeitY and skill development and Entrepreneurship, said, “We are the largest ‘connected’ nation in the world with 800 million Indian users. 5G and the largest rural broadband connectivity network project at BharatNet will have 1.2 billion Indian users constituting the single largest presence of the global internet.” “We also expect further technological innovations as well as updated regulatory policies to remain relevant. The deep involvement by all stakeholders will be the third leg of this Global Standard Cyber Law Framework that we hope will catalyze the Indian internet and the economy.”

“India now has a tremendous powerful offering, identity authentication to a very diverse and rich suite of applications, and improved accessibility to the internet to countries in the Global South which have not been able to step up and create the same sort of pace of digitization of the economy is an internalisation of their economies. During the G20 Presidency, the Honorable Prime Minister declared that he will be open to India offering that platform to all those nations in the Global South that want to transform their digital economy and their governance model as India.” “The multistakeholder architecture of the Indian internet happened after a lot of effort. In the next few years, this multi-stakeholder engagement must go beyond the intellectual academic discussion to ensure the internet grows and innovation grows while keeping both safe and trusted and accountable for all the billion digital nagriks of India,” he said.

Speaking about the second edition of IIGF, Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, MeitY, said, “The Digital India program augments India’s mission with digital literacy initiative skills with an exemplary indigenous success story, which has become a world story with technical progress shaping new India. The theme of IIGF 2022 “Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat” is appropriate as India is looking at the major initiative of connecting the unconnected ones with best internet connectivity.” We are looking at building laws which ensure the privacy, protection, data, security and safety of our citizens. We are also looking at how to create a trillion-dollar digital economy in the next three years.”