2023 Year in Review: Top policy changes that impacted the technology industry

The Indian government introduced a slew of policy and regulatory changes that impacted the country’s digital ecosystem. ETtech recaps the top tech policy developments of and its significance. lays down the obligations of entities handling and processing data as well as the rights of individuals.

It proposes a maximum penalty of Rs 250 crore and a minimum of Rs 50 crore on entities violating the norms. The government has proposed to (DPB) that can impose penalties, summon data fiduciaries, inspect the books and accounts or statements and even suggest to the government to block internet intermediaries. In May, the government notified the second phase of the PLI scheme for IT hardware with a budgetary outlay of Rs 17,000 crore.

It received with expected incremental investments of Rs 5,010 crore, of which it may approve 10. Companies such as HP India, Lenovo India, and Flexotronics are likely to see their proposals approved. In April, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) .

These rules proposed setting up of self-regulatory organisations (SROs) that would certify whether a game is allowed on the Indian internet. The intention behind these was to firstly stop real money gaming that allowed users to wager on an outcome, and secondly to create a framework to keep a check on aspects such as addiction, violence, child sexual material on online games. The SROs were to be formed as independent bodies having experts from various disciplines, including industry representatives, as members.

They were to be responsible for distinguishing between what is a game of skill and what is a game of chance, among other mandates of overseeing the sector. However, that Meity has deferred plans to form an SRB as it is waiting for “harmonisation” of the views of various ministries — MeitY, law, finance and home — on the industry before proceeding further. In July, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council Tuesday decided to impose the .

Moreover, the levy was now applicable on the full-face value of bets placed on real money gaming instead of just the commission that companies made. In addition to an increase in tax compliance, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) sent out a to online real money gaming companies such as Dream11, Play Games24x7, Head Digital Works over GST dues of about Rs 55,000 crore The government floated the in July proposing changes across nine themes including access to funding, strengthening the intellectual property regime, sustaining deep tech startups, and enabling shared infrastructure and resource sharing. Among the steps proposed is the setting up of a dedicated ‘deep tech capital guidance’ fund in which the government, private limited partners and foreign investors anchor certain commitments to a new fund or an existing fund in the form of a fund of fund (FoF) structure.

In December, the government . The aim is to curb the deceptive behaviour of ecommerce companies. Further, the final guidelines notified 13 forms of dark patterns, up from the 10 it had notified in its draft guidelines.

Some of the patterns are false urgency, basket sneaking, forced action, and subscription trap, among others. The RBI has (AIFs) by mainstream banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), with a requirement for divestment if lending institutions have invested in AIF units that also lent to a company borrowing from the same institution. that the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association, or IVCA, is discussing with central government officials to help ease these wide-ranging curbs as they can, potentially choke institutional fund flows to a high-risk and hitherto lightly regulated investment vehicle experts believe could be misused to evergreen doubtful corporate loans.

The Centre in September methodologies from the draft rules and introducing a mechanism for arriving at the fair market value of Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) for investment from residents as well as non-resident residents. The new rules, while providing exclusion to several foreign jurisdictions from where money comes in, did not exclude some of those that are popular wih venture investors for parking their funds, including Mauritius, Singapore, Cayman Islands and the Netherlands. It provided a headroom to include for minor valuation discrepancies taking into account any inconvenience to the investors.

The new rules became effective from September 25. Stay on top of and that matters. to our daily newsletter for the latest and must-read tech news, delivered straight to your inbox.

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