Acknowledging that the technology needs “responsible regulation”, Alphabet and Google CEO Sunadar Pichai on Monday said his company is engaging with countries on how to best safeguard citizens‘ interests.
Speaking at the Google India’s flagship event in New Delhi, where Union Minister of IT and Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw was the chief guest, Pichai said India has to play and leadership role and make sure that there is a balance maintained in terms of safeguards being put for citizens and allowing companies innovate.
As India refines its personal data protection (PDP) bill, along with other bills that cater to the digital era, Pichai said it is important for the government to create regulatory frameworks.
Stating that India is going through a critical phase of digital transformation, he batted for an open and connected internet.
“India has a leadership role to play here. It’s important to make sure you’re balancing the safeguards you’re putting for people and creating innovative frameworks so that companies can innovate on top of certainty in the legal framework,” IANS quoted his as saying in a report.
IT Minister Vaishnaw said that the government is working on a range of bills aimed at safeguarding users’ data and creating a robust legal regulatory framework around the new internet economy.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us a clear target of creating a comprehensive legal regulatory framework. First we have the telecom bill that is for the telecom carriers. Second is the digital protection bill, which is focused around enforcing citizens’ privacy rights. The ‘Digital India’ bill will look at practically everything else that is required to be seen,” he said.
The government aims to make these bills go live, starting next year.
Pichai said that “to me it makes sense that tech needs responsible regulation” considering the scale at which tech is working and touching so many lives around the world.
“I think it’s important for countries to think about how to best safeguard their citizens. We are engaging constructively,” he said in his address to the audience.
“It is easy to build something which scales across the entire country and this is the opportunity that India has. There’s no better time to do a startup, even though we are working through a macro-economic situation right now,” the Google CEO said.
