MCA and Meity demarcate respective roles, resolve tussle
- July 5, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
MCA and Meity demarcate respective roles, resolve tussle
Subject :Economy
Section: Monetary Policy
In News:
MCA and MeitY officials arrive at a clear demarcation of their respective roles in regulation of digital markets.
Key Points:
- There was frequent turf war between the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) over regulation of the digital markets, with both having jurisdiction because the sector involves both technology matters as well as competition issues.
- Centre has now made it clear that Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) would be the nodal Ministry to look into all the “competition issues in the digital market” and the Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY) will look into sector-specific & technical issues.
- Clarity of roles and oversight areas is critical as it comes at a time when the Government is working towards introducing several pieces of legislations including Digital India Act and Digital Competition law for regulating various facets of the booming digital market in India.
- Significance:
- Firstly, it is now clear that the upcoming Digital India Act by MeitY will not have provisions around competition issues of technology or gatekeeper platforms.
- Secondly, the upcoming Digital Competition law would as planned look to bring digital gatekeepers including AI platforms under an ex-ante framework to be introduced through the legislation.
- MCA appointed an inter ministerial panel Committee on Digital Competition law (CDCL) to look into matters involving both the ministries.
- CDCL was already tasked to examine the need for a separate legal framework for ex-ante regulation of Systemically Important Digital Intermediaries (SIDIs)
- The CDCL is in the last lap of firming up a draft of the Digital Competition Law.