New Delhi: A fortnight after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese mobile apps including Tiktok and WeChat in wake of the Galwan clashes of June 15, the Indian IT and Chinese Ministers today shared a virtual room during the G20 Digital Economy Ministers Meet.
Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in his remarks without naming China stressed on the need for digital platforms to uphold data privacy and security as sovereign rights of citizens. He underlined that in view of security concerns ‘the digital platforms having presence in many countries must become trustworthy, safe and secure’.
“The digital platforms need to be responsive, accountable and sensitive to the concern of sovereign nations as far as safety, defence and data privacy is concerned,” said Prasad at the meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia which is holding the presidency of G20.
Following India’s decision to ban the apps, China had expressed its ‘strong concerns’ and called it a violation of WTO guidelines while raising the issue in a bilateral meeting. The IT Ministry on Tuesday meanwhile directed the banned Chinese app companies to ensure strict compliance to its orders or else face serious consequences in case of any violation, as per sources.
At the G20 meeting today, Minister Prasad further said,” We all need to acknowledge that digital economy must go hand in hand with data economy. We need to acknowledge sovereignty over data. Data must belong to sovereign nation concerned, to protect also the privacy of its people.”
He informed the G20 participants that “India is soon going to put in place a robust personal data protection law which will not only address the data privacy-related concerns of citizens but also ensure availability of data for innovation and economic development.” He cited Aarogya Setu app among India’s digital innovation initiatives to help fight Covid 19.
