Lok Sabha Question No. 41 (STARRED), answered on 2020-02-05
Subject: e-Commerce Policy
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: Thalikkottai Rajuthevar Baalu

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT FOR PROMOTION OF INDUSTRY AND INTERNAL TRADE

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. 41. TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 05 TH  FEBRUARY, 2020.

## e-COMMERCE POLICY

## *41. SHRI T.R. BAALU:

Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY be pleased to state:

वाणिज्य

## एवं उद्योग मंत्री

- (a) whether the Government has drawn up a clear roadmap to exploit the benefits of the digital economy while safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders;
- (b) if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the  details  of  the  initiatives  taken  by  the  Government  on  the  country's e-Commerce Policy to tackle cross border data flows?

## ANSWER वाणिज ् य एवं उद्योग मंत्री ( श्री पीयूष गोयल ) THE MINISTER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI  PIYUSH GOYAL)

- A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
- ******

(a) to (c):

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION NO. 41 FOR ANSWER ON 5 th   FEBRUARY, 2020

- (a) to (c): Yes Sir, the Government of India launched the Digital India programme in July 2015 to transform India into a knowledge-based economy and digitally empowered society. It has mobilised Ministries and Departments to launch schemes  and  projects to ensure Digital Inclusion  of  all.  A  Report  by  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information technology  (MeitY)  titled,  'India's  Trillion  Dollar  Digital  Opportunity' outlines  the  measures  that  will  help  India  to  optimally  harness  digital technologies in the core economic and social sectors. This document recognizes  opportunity  created  for  enabling  India  to  realise  a  Trillion Dollar Digital Opportunity, for economic value add. The potential of a trillion  dollars  digital  value  add  to  the  economy  is  to  be  achieved  by creation  of  sectoral  public  digital  platforms  and  aggressively  adopt emerging  technologies  for  their  respective  initiative.  These,  coupled with  growth in electronics manufacturing, shall lead to the target of 1 trillion dollar economic value add through digital interventions by 2025.

The  Government  has  also  recently  introduced  National  Policy  on Electronics (NPE) and National Policy on Software Products (NPSP) in 2019 for the growing digital economy.

Further, a draft National e-commerce policy has also been prepared to create a facilitative  regulatory  environment for  growth  of  e-commerce sector in India and to leverage access to data such that data of Indians can be used for the growth of digital economy in India. Consultations with concerned stakeholders is ongoing with an aim to finalise a policy which is holistic and takes into account concerns of all stakeholders of the growing digital ecosystem.

More recently, the Personal Data Protection Bill, currently under review with the Joint Parliamentary Committee seeks to establish a strong and robust  Data  Protection  framework  for  India  and  a  Data  Protection Authority for regulating the privacy of Personal Data and empowering the citizens with rights relating to their personal data. Further, on issues relating  to  non-personal  data,  MeitY  has  constituted  a  committee  of experts to deliberate on the Data Governance Framework.

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