The government asked digital platforms to provide technical and business process solutions to prevent and weed out misinformation that can potentially harm society and democracy, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
India may be 15th among the top 25 Artificial Intelligence nations, but it has the 'the greatest upward potential' according to research by Tufts University's business school, the Fletcher School. At the top is the US, followed by China, fighting for global leadership in AI followed by the UK, Japan, and Germany. In the 15th spot, India is ahead of Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia and Thailand.
Some of the important campaigns of this digital literacy campaign, he said, has being held in India, where people were creating new ways to teach.
WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose and Meta's public policy head Rajiv Aggarwal have resigned from their positions, social media major Meta said on Tuesday. The development comes within a week of Meta announcing 11,000 lay-offs across the globe. The company has given charge of Meta India Public Policy to Shivnath Thukral who is currently serving as Director of WhatsApp Public Policy in India.
'When your own government asks for your name and address there is a massive revolution saying it's intrusion in privacy'
Sadly, governments and their agencies can't be trusted to use private data, or decryption methods responsibly, says Devangshu Dutta.
...and say bye to the humanities-science divide, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
Even as cyber threats continue to rise in India - the second-largest global active internet user base - the country is currently facing a big skill gap in the cybersecurity domain and represents just six per cent of global cybersecurity jobs, finds a report. As of May 2023, the industry had about 40,000 open opportunities, indicating the growing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals. However, the demand-supply gap stood at 30 per cent, projecting a major skill challenge in the industry, finds the study by tech staffing firm TeamLease.
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
The government will investigate a claim that WhatsApp accessed the microphone of smartphone users while the phone was not in use, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday.
He could have blazed a trail that few Indian judges had. It was a missed opportunity of a lifetime, notes Ramesh Menon.
The government on Thursday tabled the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in the Lok Sabha with an aim to protect the privacy of Indian citizens, while proposing a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect digital data of individuals.
Experts warned that amendments, which would allow traceability of "unlawful content", invade personal privacy and free speech.
India is among countries at the highest risk from cyber vulnerabilities caused by a new generation of GenAI technologies.
'The idea is to frame the ToR quickly, so that Trai can begin its consultations with industry stakeholders.'
The Declaration for the Future of the Internet is in part a response to a rising trend of digital authoritarianism, including Russia's actions to block credible news sites
Religion and economic barriers continue to define love in modern India, discovers Preshth Bhardwaj.
Information technology industry veteran V Balakrishnan on Thursday criticised the new digital rules, alleging that they appear to be unduly compromising the privacy right of citizens. The two key issues with the new IT rules relate to user privacy, which is a fundamental right, and the oversight mechanism lying fully with the executive arm of the government, said the former chief financial officer of Bengaluru-headquartered IT major Infosys Ltd.
Borrowing from a fraudulent loan app subjects the borrower to a variety of risks.
The number of frauds in the banking sector during the first half of the current financial year has increased substantially to 14,483 cases, although the amount involved is only 14.9 per cent of the previous year's amount, according to a RBI report. The report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2022-23, underlined the need to protect the banking system and the payments system from the risks of fraud and data breaches emanating from cyber threats. As many as 14,483 frauds were reported involving an amount of Rs 2,642 crore in the first half of current financial year, as compared to 5,396 cases (Rs 17,685 crore) in the same period a year ago.
'There were two options before the government -- create a complex, cumbersome law, which will cause a tremendous amount of compliance challenges for startups or say let's go back and do a clean slate, where we do a framework of laws and policies'
Hours after Congress leader Manish Tewari on Thursday said the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw refuted the charge and termed it a "normal bill".
The UIDAI issued a strong rebuttal to Moody's Investors Service which claimed that the Aadhaar system often results in service denials and the reliability of biometric technologies, especially for manual labourers, in hot and humid climates is questionable.
What all global leaders need to understand is that no Generative AI regulation will work unless they start with the basics, which is data collection, asserts Prosenjit Datta.
'Everywhere our younger computer professionals are in the forefront, defending our national interest in every forum and keeping our flag flying high.'
The National Digital Health Mission seeks to provide a unique health ID to each citizen who wishes to have one and also on-board the healthcare service provides - hospitals, pharmacies and diagnostic labs, among others. It will have an online database of doctors and personal health records.
'The government's proposal to store citizens' data including Aadhaar data under its Digital India initiative on cloud is violative of the citizens' human rights because the cloud is admittedly beyond India's jurisdiction.'
The Congress' chief whip Jairam Ramesh, said, 'Today, too, the INDIA parties demanded the prime minister's presence in the Rajya Sabha to make a statement on Manipur, to be followed by a discussion.'
The alliance combines capabilities of both the companies to offer a set of solutions comprising connectivity, computing, storage solutions, and other technology services and applications required by Indian businesses, and will span the broad Reliance Industries ecosystem, including its existing and new businesses.
'The last year's growth is a foretaste of things to come in the retail credit market.'
From educating people about the internet, connecting far-flung areas with a high-speed net, promoting entrepreneurship, building start-up incubators, women empowerment, to even running a voter registration campaign, cybersecurity and counter-terrorism, Facebook and Google have done it all for the government.
India is investing in developing indigenous capabilities in 5G and 6G telecom technologies besides focusing on manufacturing semi-conductors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday. In a virtual address at the Sydney Dialogue, the prime minister said the "greatest product" of technology today is data and that India has created a robust framework of data protection, privacy and security. "And, at the same time, we use data as a source of empowerment of people. India has unmatched experience in doing this in a democratic framework with strong guarantees of individual rights," he said.
The protection of individual security and privacy is critical to building safe online systems, say Mitchell Baker and Ankit Gadgil.
Amid the spirited debate, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved a draft resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism by a recorded vote of 105 in favour to 52 against, with 15 abstentions.
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
After withdrawing the personal data protection bill, the government is hopeful of getting a new legislation passed by the next Budget session of Parliament, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said. The government on Wednesday withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha. The Joint Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, headed by BJP member P P Chaudhary, had tabled its report in Lok Sabha on December 16, 2021.
After withdrawing the personal data protection bill, the government is hopeful of getting a new legislation passed by the next Budget session of Parliament, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
According to the Reserve Bank of India's data, cash still accounts for 90 per cent of all monetary transactions in India.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a petitions challenging Aadhaar, said no system in the world was secure and the issue was not as to how data is collected, but how the information so collected are used or misused.
