Startups Vs Big Techs: Govt Assures Balanced Policymaking Approach

Amid an ongoing turf war between Indian startups and tech giants, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar reportedly said that the government will listen to all the stakeholders and will not allow big tech companies to influence the policymaking process. 

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Chandrasekhar said that Indian startups will be provided the same playing field as the tech majors during the policymaking process. He added that all concerned stakeholders – ‘big, small, Indian, foreign’ – will be allowed to present their views while formulating norms concerning the digital space. 

“Around the table, we have everybody present. But we will certainly not allow the big tech companies to corner or grab policy. We will listen to them as much as we listen to and give as much importance to our startups, especially Indian startups, when it comes to policymaking,” he was quoted as saying. 

This comes amid an ongoing infighting within the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). Indian startups, which are part of the industry body, have accused the IAMAI of batting for big tech companies. 

The row erupted after the IAMAI, in an internal note circulated to its members, panned the recommendations of a December 2022 report by a parliamentary panel on the anti-competitive practices employed by big tech companies.

The draft recommendations by the IAMAI opposed the need for a separate digital competition law and claimed that such a move would stifle innovation, inbound investments and consumer welfare within the country.

Reacting sharply to the draft, Indian startup founders claimed that the IAMAI was parroting ‘anti-India and pro-foreign’ agenda. Speaking to Inc42, a cofounder said that the big techs were bankrolling the industry body, while Shaadi’s CEO and cofounder Anupam Mittal said that the IAMAI was being run by big tech companies.

Many cofounders also said that the industry body was dominated by executives of foreign big tech, adding that they were also looking at establishing a new body dedicated solely to Indian startups. MapmyIndia’s CEO Rohan Verma also called for structural changes to the IAMAI’s board, which counts top executives at Google India and WhatsApp India as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively.

Retorting back, the IAMAI, in another internal note to members, said that the draft was prepared with the support of an ‘overwhelming majority’ of its members. 

Troubled Waters For Big Techs In India

Chandrasekhar’s statement comes at a time when Indian startups are fighting pitched battles with big tech companies. In the past few months, Indian startups dragged tech giant Google to multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, over the latter’s contentious user choice billing policy. Matrimony.com even obtained an injunction against the tech major, barring it from implementing the payments mandates.

Making matters worse seems to be a sea of regulatory changes instituted by the Centre to govern the digital landscape. Be it the new IT amendments or Telecommunications Bill, 2022, foreign-based tech behemoths are at the centre of it all.

These tech giants have also been pulled by the Centre in the past for their failure to crackdown on alleged fake news and slow response to government’s takedown orders. Microblogging platform Twitter, right before its takeover by Elon Musk, even challenged some of the takedown orders in the Karnataka High Court.

Even as regulatory pressures mount, India continues to be a huge market for big tech companies. Home to the world’s biggest population and 69.2 Cr internet users, the rising tide of smartphone and internet penetration makes the country an attractive bet for these foreign players.

While many of the reforms brought in by the government have not gone down well with big tech companies, the spotlight now is on the digital competition bill, which is currently under consideration.