Satya Nadella and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad discuss all about Digital India

Recently, the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella and the Union IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad met and discussed some important matters. The topics of their discussion included data sovereignty and the initiative of Digital India and other relevant matters. Here are the details of their discussions that took place on Wednesday.

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‘We have to establish one lakh digital villages’ – Ravi Shankar Prasad

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella along with the Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad addressed the media and said that it was a courtesy meeting which went very good. He also added that they talked about issues like data sovereignty that are under development.

The Union IT Minister also mentioned how Digital India was also discussed with the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He also said that several other issues were addressed during their conversation.

Also read: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Says Data Privacy Should Be Seen As Human Right

Ravi Shankar Prasad also stated how data sovereignty and data localisation had been significant subjects of debate with the introduction of the Personal Data Protection Bill by the government in the parliament last year. According to the Bill passed by the government, the transfer of data is allowed outside India.

However, while transferring ‘sensitive’ personal data outside the country, a copy of the information is to be kept in India. The data collection/processing entities are, however, barred from transferring ‘critical’ personal data outside the country.

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Union Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mircosoft CEO, Satya Nadella’s conversation also highlighted how data sovereignty is a problem as significantly more technology companies are situated outside India and require the transfer of data. The minister also elaborated on how he has made an offer to the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to adopt some of the villages in the country and transform them into digital villages. The Government of India has kept a target of establishing one lakh digital villages across the country.

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