MEITY may come up with a report on non-personal-community, anonymised and ecommerce - data held by companies, including Uber, Google and Amazon, to be used to chalk out a policy on nonpersonal data regulation. The government may also consider leaving it to the ministries or regulators to define which kind of data should come under the purview of such a policy. This comes after the latest round of select stakeholder consultation over the draft Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, in which the government has also sought opinions on the contours of a policy for non-personal data, besides feedback on issues such as data localisation. 

The government of India plans to release a Cybersecurity Strategy in 2020. The government had “made a start” on a cybersecurity policy, the present Cybersecurity policy was released in 2013, and a lot has changed in the six years since then.

5G will change the entire scope of cybersecurity in India. There are new aspects like ransomware, and IoT was not there, so with these changes, there is going to be a new strategy for dealing with cybersecurity. A small team has been created to draft the policy and public consultation will be sought in due course. 

The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) approved a series of measures to increase Information and Communications Technology (ICT) access to persons with disabilities (PwD), including a mandate for major mobile phone manufacturers to produce at least one model which satisfies the needs of PwDs.

“All mobile manufacturers who produce more than 5 models shall be mandated to make one model that satisfies the needs of persons with disabilities.

The Centre has also been conducting inter-ministerial consultations on the issue and a committee under the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities will now be set up to drive measures focused on increasing ICT access to this group of telecom users. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had already submitted its recommendations on the issue as early as July 2018, with the measures approved by the DCC largely toeing the line. DCC has also approved other measures suggested by TRAI.  

The government will soon announce a new industrial policy aimed at promoting growth of industries and creation of jobs.

Addressing the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, the President said work is underway in full earnest to transform India into a global manufacturing hub. "Keeping in view Industry 4.0, a new industrial policy will be announced shortly.

The new policy will replace the industrial policy of 1991 which was prepared in the backdrop of balance of payment crisis. This will be the third industrial policy after the ones released in 1956 and 1991.

The proposed policy aims at promoting emerging sectors and modernising existing industries. It will also look to reduce regulatory hurdles and encourage adoption of frontier technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)'s secretary said that the government is now working on policies to develop electronic components manufacturing base in the country and encourage exports. "From near assembly, India is right now moving in that direction seriously with policies to bringing sub-assemblies, component manufacturing in India. 

Once printed circuit board (PCB or the motherboard) assembly takes off in India, it will not only cater to the mobile phone segment, but also other major electronic devices, he added. The last five years, the MeiTY secretary said, witnessed a resurgence of manufacturing in India, starting with assembling of mobile phones. "From around 6 crore mobile phones that were being assembled in 2014-15, we closed the last financial year with assembly of 29 crore mobile phones within the country.

An inter-ministerial panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to develop India as a hub for electronics exports will release its policy, focused on how to further boost handset manufacturing, within one month, top government officials said.

A larger policy for the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem will also be put in place in the next two to three months, which will include fresh incentives and sops to promote India as a global manufacturing hub. Electronics and IT minister said the time had come to make India a big hub for export of electronics and components. “India will offer you human resource, investor-friendly policies and incentives for making in India, and for exports,” he said, urging companies such as Apple and Samsung to expand their manufacturing base in India and use the country as an exports hub.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate has released Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy (NREP), 2019. NRPE, 2019 envisions a future with environmentally sustainable and equitable economic growth, resource security, healthy environment (air, water and land), and restored ecosystems with rich ecology and biodiversity. The Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy is guided by the principles of (i) Reduce primary resource consumption to ‘sustainable’ levels, in keeping with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and staying within the planetary boundaries (ii) Create higher value with less material through resource efficient and circular approaches (iii) Minimize waste creation and loss of embedded resources at the end-of-life of products (iv) Ensure security of material supply and reduce import dependence for essential materials (v) Create employment opportunities and business models beneficial to the cause of environment protection and restoration. 

A new initiative was launched on 23rd September at the UN Climate Action Summit to help guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitting industries toward the low-carbon economy.

India and Sweden together with Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Korea and the UK, as well as a group of companies including Dalmia Cement, DSM, Heathrow Airport, LKAB, Mahindra Group, Royal Schiphol Group, Scania, SpiceJet, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp and Vattenfall, announced a new Leadership Group for Industry Transition that will drive transformation in hard-to-decarbonize and energy-intensive sectors. 

This global initiative will be supported by the World Economic Forum, the Energy Transitions Commission, Mission Innovation, Stockholm Environment Institute, and the European Climate Foundation among many others in an ambitious, public-private effort, to ensure heavy industries and mobility companies can find a workable pathway to deliver on the Paris Agreement.

Prime Minister of India said that India will achieve most of the COP 21 climate change goals set for 2030 in the next one and half years.  In his address to the Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters, he said there was a lot of talk about dangers of climate change but action was not evident. 

The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Paris from November 30 to December 12 2015 that saw the participation of 195 nations.

The nations negotiated and adopted the Paris Agreement in which India made four commitments, including reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35% below 2005 levels by 2030, under its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, launched the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 in New Delhi. India jumped five places to improve its position from 57th last year to 52nd in 2019.

The GII rankings are published every year by Cornell University, INSEAD and the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and GII Knowledge Partners. This is the 12th edition of the GII rankings of 129 economies based on 80 indicators ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.

Switzerland remains number one is the GII index followed by Sweden, the United States of America, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Israel.