Draft Digital India Bill | Hope to make this a crowd sourced model of legislation, says MeitY minister

The information technology (IT) ministry is likely to release the draft digital India act for public comment before the end of this month. The bill will subsume the existing information technology act and may seek accountability from social media companies for algorithms deployed.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Ashmit Kumar, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship of India said the earlier bill went far beyond data protection and therefore had to be repealed.

Chandrasekhar said the government wants the DNA and the architecture of all of these legislations rules to be built in a sense, the "Sabka Prayas" idea of the Prime Minister, with the industry, with public policymakers, with people who are views on this about what the future will be, and really make this a crowd-sourced sort of a model for legislation.

Further, he said, "Simplicity, and having multiple stakeholders be involved in the legislative process, creating the architecture and design of the law is what our outcomes were and I think this bill meets those objectives beautifully."

Minister added that the government is creating a framework to govern the digital world and the bill will focus on the rights of data principals and fiduciaries.