Our data protection law will set a benchmark: Ravi Shankar Prasad

The government has conveyed its concerns to social media companies and they must ensure that their platforms are not used to defame people, promote terrorism or extremism, said Union Minister for electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad in an interview to ET’s Surabhi Agarwal. He also rebuffed criticism that companies are only doing assembly in India and said the government has approved three large proposals to manufacture PCBs in India from Samsung, OPPO and Lava worth a total of Rs 6,000 crore. Prasad also spoke about increasing custom duty to 20% and the data protection law.

Edited Excerpts:

While the government has taken a very strong stance on Facebook-Cambridge Analytica matter, what are you doing to control the spread of fake news and misinformation on social media?

Social media platforms must ensure that their platforms are not used to defame people, promote terrorism and extremism. Platforms, including Facebook, will never be allowed to abuse our election process for extraneous means. The purity of the elections will never be compromised. I have conveyed my concerns to social media companies. We have got powers under the existing laws, both in the Indian Penal Code and in the IT Act, to take action.

Social media companies need to understand that the sentiment of the people of the society should not be offended. Twitter’s policy head has assured me that they are looking into (the abuse of the platform). On the Facebook issue, I am open to the idea of conducting an investigation, they may be asked to explain their position.

Do you think by reducing the custom duty to 20% on mobile manufacturing we may run foul of the WTO norms?
Manufacturing electronics is the most important component of the Make in India programme. From two mobile manufacturing companies in 2014, we have 118 now and the number is likely to reach 120. The turnover has increased from Rs 19,000 crore to Rs 90,000 crore now and by March (end) it may cross even Rs 1,20,000 crore. By 2019-2020, 96% of India’s mobile needs will be met by domestic mobile manufacturing. You ask why this duty? The duty has two components, higher basic custom duty on finished products and lower basic custom duty on sub assemblies which are not manufactured in India. The import of sub assemblies is almost at zero duty. We feel that whatever duty protection we have given, it is within the international obligations.

There is often criticism that despite the huge jump in mobile manufacturing, companies are mostly still doing assembly in India. Is large-scale indigenous manufacturing something which is missing here?
The way ahead is only this — it begins with assembly, then comes components, then the entire ecosystem. There is a large number of companies which manufacture components too. Out of the 120 companies, 58 are for mobile handsets; 28 for adapter chargers; 19 for battery packs and 4 for wired headsets, etc.

Some experts are saying that the duty cut to 20% will lead to stagnation in the domestic market.What do you think?
I don’t agree. The Indian market is a huge market and when we say Make in India, it is for India and they could also export to Asean countries or the Middle East. These are all huge markets, so that question is absolutely irrelevant.

Since the public consultations on the data protection law are over, will the draft be released for another consultation and by when will it be finalised?
The feedback will be included in the draft, and then we will finalise it. White paper contains the idea, the draft formulates the idea into legal form. You never disclose the contours of the law beforehand. It will be finalised in a couple of months. India’s data protection law will be a robust law which can become a benchmark in the case of data security globally. The Supreme court under the privacy judgement has made a very important observation that privacy is the biggest shield of the corrupt and the terrorist, therefore the balance has to there. And India with its 1.3 billion population, our data availability should lead to proper data innovation.