Minister of state (MoS) for electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said on Saturday that while the government encourages every company to come and do business in India, it doesn’t want the digital economy to be “throttled” or “controlled” by a few big technology companies.

He was responding to a question at the ET Global Business Summit where he emphasised that India will be among the nations that shape the future of products, devices and platforms.

“I think we could all agree that in no space do we want domination by a few companies.

And there are many segments of the digital economy…that are uncomfortable, dominated by one or two or three big companies,” he said.

On the need for government intervention, he said, “...payments were dominated by foreign platforms in the past, and you’re seeing during the Russia-Ukraine war how weaponisation of those platforms can be easily done by countries….” So, it’s imperative for India’s sovereignty that the digital economy be resilient, and its platforms and technologies be accessed and run from India, he added.ET Global Business Summit: 40 percent of the world's real-time digital payments take place in India, says PM ModiChandrasekhar said, among the newer technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) will be a “kinetic enabler” of the digital economy and the government will introduce accountability and scrutiny for companies using IT in the structure of the new Digital India Act.In response to another question on the need for setting standards for AI, he said, “There is the whole issue of harm and ethical use of AI.

So there are all these boundaries that we want to build, without really coming in the way of innovation.”The minister said the Digital India Act, which replaces the 22-year-old Information Technology Act, will be ready soon.

The government is also working to finalise the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill and, if required, legislation for cybersecurity