The industry body, whose members include Google, Twitter, Meta and Reliance, said in a letter to the government that internet shutdowns in the country cause “significant inconvenience to the local public at large,” Reuters reported on Wednesday.
According to the letter, obtained by Reuters, the central government should be the governing authority for internet suspensions.
Currently, internet shutdowns are handled by the states, which shut down internet services for a variety of reasons, such as maintaining law and order and preventing students from cheating on exams.
The IAMAI urged the Centre to be the governing authority for internet shutdowns, with states following the procedures it lays down.
SC notice to govt: Then on Friday, the Supreme Court directed the IT ministry to respond to a petition alleging indiscriminate shutdown of internet facilities to prevent cheating in exams.
The notice was in response to a petition filed by Software Freedom Law Centre, which challenged arbitrary internet shutdowns to prevent cheating during public examinations.
The petition said the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Rajasthan have been imposing internet shutdowns based on “imaginary, fanciful or fictitious law and order problems” arising from the exams. “Such administrative decisions are manifestly arbitrary and wholly disproportionate response, and are impermissible under the Constitution,” it stated.
Scale of the problem: India imposed internet shutdowns 106 times in 2021 – more than any other country for the fourth consecutive year – according to a report from digital rights advocacy group Access Now in April. Between 2012 and 2022, the country has witnessed 683 internet shutdowns – the highest in the world.
This dubious record looks set to continue in 2022. India accounted for 85% of internet shutdowns in the first six months of this year out of the 10 countries where such disruptions and restrictions were recorded, according to a report by Surfshark and NetBlocks in August.
Written by Zaheer Merchant
Top Stories By Our Reporters
Wary investors walk away from big funding deals, citing tech turbulence
Tech Policy Update
Govt finalises draft rules to counter fake reviews on ecommerce platforms: The government has finalised a draft framework of guidelines on how to counter fake reviews and unverified star ratings on ecommerce websites, and travel and hotel bookings platforms, Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, said in an exclusive interview with ET’s podcast series, The Morning Brief.
MeitY pulls down draft data anonymisation guidelines: The government has pulled down its draft guidelines on data anonymisation, the third instance of a set of draft rules being removed this year. The guidelines were put up for feedback by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on August 30. We reported on September 2 that MeitY had invited public comments on the draft guidelines.
Final IT Rules amendments to be rolled out soon, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar: The government will come out with the final version of its proposed amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021 in the next few days, minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday.
Bengaluru Floods
Startup founders, VCs bemoan Bengaluru infrastructure
Tech firms, K’taka govt agree to solve flooding issues by next monsoon: The Karnataka government and IT companies on Wednesday decided to jointly find a permanent solution to the issue of waterlogging in the city following incessant rainfall over the last few days that affected citizens and several tech firms in two key tech suburbs.
Ecommerce Corner
Etailers ask sellers to prepare for Sept-end festive sales
Ecommerce firms, including Amazon India and Flipkart, have told their sellers to prepare for the upcoming festive season sales, which are likely to take place in the third week of September, sources told us.
Ecommerce, logistics firms scramble for workers to meet festive season demand: Logistics and ecommerce firms are chasing supply chain, logistics and delivery workers in tier 2, 3 and 4 markets and beyond, on the back of higher demand for consumer products and services this festive season.
Tata Digital tweaking Neu after complaints of glitches: Tata Digital is making changes to super app Tata Neu after complaints about glitches, poor user experience and payment issues. The Neu Pass loyalty programme has been integrated directly with brand payments so that redemptions can be made without delay, executives said. Consumers had stumbled over restrictions and glitches in redeeming points. Tata Payments will be relaunched in October after ensuring there are no technical glitches in terms of consumer experience, they said.
Startup Funding
Shadowfax in talks to raise $100 million at $350-400 million valuation
Hyperlocal logistics startup Shadowfax is in talks to raise $75-$100 million in a mix of primary and secondary capital, multiple sources told us. A91 Partners is in discussions to finance the primary part, three people said, adding the deal is currently in the due diligence stage.
Prosus Ventures may invest in ex-Myntra CEO’s new fashion startup: Prosus Ventures, the venture investment arm of Prosus (formerly Naspers) is in advanced stages of talks to join the funding round of yet to launch venture of former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram, sources briefed on the matter told us.
ETtech Done Deals
■ Edtech unicorn Unacademy has acquired Gate Academy, for an undisclosed amount, in a bid to bolster its presence in the graduate aptitude test in engineering (GATE) test preparation segment. As a part of the transaction, the entire team of Gate Academy will join the edtech firm.
■ Wow! Momo Foods has raised Rs 125 crore in funding from private equity fund Oaks Asset Management at a valuation of Rs 2,125 crore. The funding is a part of a two-tranche raise, with the second one being planned with another fund where Wow! Momo intends to raise Rs 100 crore.
ET Ecommerce Index
We’ve launched three indices – ET Ecommerce, ET Ecommerce Profitable, and ET Ecommerce Non-Profitable – to track the performance of recently listed tech firms. Here’s how they’ve fared so far.
In Other News
Google Play store reverses policy on fantasy gaming, rummy apps in India
Young, financially stressed and uninsured; the story of India’s gig workers: In a survey of over 4,000 gig workers from platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola, UrbanClap, and Amazon, it has been found that the workers in India are young, financially stressed, and largely uninsured.
CCI clears PayU-BillDesk deal after a year of announcement: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has cleared online payments major PayU’s $4.7 billion acquisition of payment gateway firm BillDesk, the antitrust regulator said in a tweet on Monday evening.
CCI keen to pass a verdict on Google probe soon: India’s competition watchdog is in the final stages its investigation into search giant Google’s Play Store policies, sources said. In 2020, Google enforced a 30% commission for all Play Store transactions, which was heavily criticised by stakeholders globally and in India, where it was seen as monopolistic and anti-competitive.
Twitter is testing a ‘share to WhatsApp’ button in India: Twitter said on Thursday it was replacing the share button for Android users with a WhatsApp share icon on an experimental basis to enable them to share tweets easily on the instant-messaging platform. The service, which will be launched in India first, will be available to Twitter users on Android initially, and then be rolled out to other operating systems and countries based on the learnings from the experiment, the company said.
Curated by Judy Franko in Bengaluru. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
That’s all from us this week. Stay safe.
