India is the largest ‘connected’ nation in the world today with more than 800 million broadband users, according to Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
He was addressing the concluding ceremony of the India Internet Governance Forum 2022, here on Sunday, with the theme ‘Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat’.
Chandrasekhar said 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,” he added.
The minister said, India now has a tremendously 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.
He further said that during the G20 Presidency, the 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 on the lines of India.
The multistakeholder architecture of the Indian internet happened after a lot of effort. In the next few years, this multistakeholder 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 added.