India Internet Governance Forum 2022

• 14 Dec 2022

For Prelims: India Internet Governance Forum 2022

For Mains: Internet Governance, Fundamental Rights, Government Policies & Interventions

Why in News?

Recently, the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship addressed the India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF) 2022.

• Theme for 2022: ‘Leveraging Techade for Empowering Bharat’.
• The event's goal is to discuss the roadmap to digitization and to reaffirm India's place on the global stage by emphasising its role and importance in international policy development on internet governance.

What is IIGF?

• It is an initiative associated with the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).

  • UN-IGF is a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together representatives from various groups, considering all to be at par to discuss public policy issues related to the Internet.

  • The IGF is an outcome of the Tunis Agenda of the World Summit on the Information Society that took place in 2005.

  • Since its first meeting, in 2006, the IGF has been convened annually by the United Nations Secretary-General, in accordance with the mandate set out in the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society.

What is the State of India’s Internet Connectivity?

• India is the largest Connected Nation:
  • India is the largest ‘connected’ nation in the world with 800 million Indian users.
  • 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.
  • India also has improved accessibility to the internet to countries in the Global South which have not been able to step up and create the same sort of pace of digitization of the economy as internetization of their economies.
• Benefits of Internet:
  • These benefits include increased productivity, financial independence, and greater access to information.

What is Internet Governance?

• About:
  • Internet Governance, broadly defined, is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.
  • It covers activities such as development and coordination of technical standards, operation of critical infrastructure and public policy issues.
  • Internet Governance involves Internet Protocol Addressing (IP Addressing), Domain Name System (DNS), Routing, Technical Innovations, Standardization, Security, Public Policy, Privacy, Legal Issues, Cyber Norms, Intellectual Property and taxation.
• Layers of internet Governance:
  • Physical Infrastructure layer
  • Code or Logical layer
  • Content layer
  • Security
• India’s Approach:
  • India supports a multi-stakeholder approach in matters on Internet Governance.
  • On matters relating to national security, the Government will continue to have supreme right and control.
  • India’s strength in the sector is its industry and human resource which can be leveraged in a multi-stakeholder approach.
• Challenges:
  • Continuously evolving nature of the internet, concentration of digital power in a few companies and countries, decision making skewed to the supply side rather than to the demand side etc.

Source: PIB