Start-ups in India will lead the charge in Web3 and the ones setting base outside the country will return back to India as the government will address the contours around Web3 by the Digital India Act (DIA), said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics, and IT. 

Chandrasekhar was speaking at the ‘Breakfast with businessline’ event in Bengaluru at ITC Gardenia on Friday. Responding to a query by Sumit Gupta, CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, the minister said that during the DIA consultation, the contours around the future of the Internet will become very clear. There will be clarity on the risks a distributed ledger, or distributed internet represents for governments that seek to make sure that the internet is safe and trusted. 

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics, and IT, with Raghuvir Srinivasan, Editor, The Hindu Businessline, at the ‘Breakfast with Businessline’ event in Bengaluru

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics, and IT, with Raghuvir Srinivasan, Editor, The Hindu Businessline, at the ‘Breakfast with Businessline’ event in Bengaluru

‘Not very clear’

Additionally, there will also be clarity on the challenges to take into account in the new model of the Internet and what is there to make sure that the Internet remains open and does not have a repeat of big tech platforms, he added. “All our start-ups who think Dubai is great to live in and don’t have to pay taxes, will all come back here. I’m fairly confident,” the minister said. 

The minister opined that the Web3 conversation is a bit like the online gaming conversation six months ago. While everybody accepts that it is a great opportunity, especially for start-ups, the framework is not very clear. “Web 3 has a peculiar view and there is a lot of noise around Web3 and the risks of Web3. Today, governments all around the world are hypersensitive to which way the internet goes and what it represents in terms of new risks whether it is conversations about AI or crypto,” Chandrasekhar said. 

The minister further said, “The apprehensions are legitimate because, for the last 15 years, governments did not do anything to regulate big tech and we end up with the problems that we are in.” Therefore, there is a general consensus, especially amongst democratic countries and like-minded nations, that all of this innovation should not be allowed to just proliferate without any guardrails, he added. 

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