Description: This issue brief presents an updated analysis of India’s regulatory and tax policies for Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), expanding on the Esya Centre report, ‘Taxes and Takedowns: An Assessment of India’s Key Policy Tools for Virtual Digital Asset Markets’ (Gautam and Sharma 2024).
Attribution: Esya Centre. The Impact of India’s VDA Tax Policy: An Update. Special Issue, No. 214. December 2024.
Description: Countries around the world are grappling with ways to move forward on platform accountability, as threats to online safety increase. Platform accountability is a longstanding refrain in internet governance. It emerged as a response to the safe harbours afforded to digital platforms. Over the last decade or so, the focus of efforts directed towards ushering in greater platform accountability has seemingly honed in on larger platforms. This paper unbundles the diffusion of online harm, and its many forms, and argues that we must widen our gaze beyond large technology platforms and deploy strategies for a more holistic reduction of online harm.
Attribution: Meghna Bal and Shweta Venkatesan. Platform Accountability and the Diffusion of Harm Online. Working Paper November 2024, Issue No. 213, Esya Centre.
Description: Technology policy is a hot issue in the 2024 US Presidential election. Indeed, both Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, and Kamala Harris, the Democratic contender, have taken positions, either directly or indirectly on different issues such as crypto-governance and social media regulation. . This paper unpacks the positions of the two presidential candidates on crypto-governance, social media regulation, governance of foreign-owned applications, and digital antitrust. Additionally, it also explores how the potential electoral outcomes in the US may intersect with technology policy in India.
Attribution: Akanksha Dutta and Chhavi Pathak. US Presidential Election 2024: Potential Implications for Technology Policy. November 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: This report offers a detailed analysis of global AI governance standards, particularly the AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) by NIST and ISO 42001:2023. It critiques these international frameworks for being overly generalized, focusing on their "one-framework-fits-all" approach, which may not adequately address the diverse applications and contexts of AI technologies. The report advocates for a tailored approach to AI governance in India, moving away from broad frameworks to more specific, context-driven standards.
Attribution: Meghna Bal. Drafting Standards for AI Systems: Critiques of International Approaches and Recommendations for India. October 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: As AI systems become more pervasive, the question of liability for AI-related harms becomes increasingly critical. This paper attempts to address the questions surrounding the creation of liability rules around AI technologies. Specifically, it tries to tackle the debate on whether AI systems merit the blanket application of strict liability rules or a more contextualized and targeted framework.
Attribution: Meghna Bal and N S Nappinai. Crafting a Liability Regime for AI Systems in India. September 2024, Esya Centre and Cyber Saathi Foundation.
Description: Stablecoins are a distinct class of virtual digital assets (VDAs) backed by fiat currencies, commodities, or other assets. They aim to maintain a stable value, thereby distinguishing them from other VDAs. The increasing prominence of stablecoins, especially in developing economies like India, necessitates the development of a balanced regulatory framework to leverage their potential while addressing associated risks. In light of the current absence of stablecoin-specific regulations in India, this document proposes a four-step process for developing a comprehensive regulatory framework.
Attribution: Mohit Chawdhry. Towards a Stablecoin Regulatory Framework in India. August 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: In recent years, several surveys have been conducted to understand the demographic characteristics of crypto-asset users and their motivations for adoption. However, a holistic assessment of user investment portfolios that encompass the various instruments in the crypto space, alongside traditional financial instruments, is lacking. This report attempts to fill this gap by analysing user engagement with assets like gold, equity/stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and cryptoassets of various types (i.e. unbacked cryptoassets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, nonfungible tokens or NFTs and stablecoins).
Attribution: Vikash Gautam. User Engagement in Traditional Financial, Crypto, and Stablecoin Markets in India. July 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: This report analyses the potential impact of the ex-ante regulation proposed in the Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024 (DDCB) on consumers. It presents findings from a survey of 2,028 consumers from 28 Indian states we conducted in February and March 2024.
Attribution: Meghna Bal, Dr. Vikash Gautam, Tamanna Sharma, and Mohit Chawdhry, A Survey-Based Assessment of the Draft Digital Competition Bill’s Impact on Consumer Welfare in Markets. July 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: This paper explores the academic perspectives and international developments around permitting AI inventorship. The paper defines AI-assisted inventions as inventions where a human uses AI technology to assist the inventive process. Additionally, if the AI system autonomously creates inventions without any human intervention, they are called AI-generated inventions.
Attribution: Akanksha Dutta. Inventorship of AI-Assisted Inventions. Policy Brief Issue No. 211, June 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: This report examines the ecosystem impact of the blocking of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of nine foreign virtual digital asset (VDA) exchanges in January 2024. These exchanges saw large increases in trading volumes following the changes in the VDA tax architecture announced in the 2022-23 Union Budget. This report therefore examine whether the blocking managed to stem this offshoring, to assess its effectiveness as a policy lever to ensure compliance with local laws for areas like taxation and anti-money laundering.
Attribution: Dr. Vikash Gautam and Tamanna Sharma. Taxes And Takedowns: An Assessment Of India’s Key Policy Tools For Virtual Digital Asset Markets. Issue No. 042, May 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: Generative AI, known for its ability to generate new content and insights, is reshaping the landscape of human-computer interaction and decision making. Alongside its many benefits, however, generative AI presents unique challenges, particularly in terms of its differentiated impact on people of different genders. This paper seeks to understand how gender bias manifests across the value chain of generative AI, through a comprehensive review of academic work and reports by international organizations. It makes recommendations for policymakers, developers, and deployers for mitigating gender bias and reducing the bias-related harms that emanate from generative AI.
Attribution: Meghna Bal, Mohit Chawdhry and Noyanika Batta. A Literature Review on Gender Bias in Generative AI: Implications for India and Recommendations for the Way Forward. April 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: This paper seeks to understand the extent to which micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) rely on large digital platforms to advertise to and attract customers, and the impact on MSMEs when regulation or legislation restricts them from doing do so. The triggers for this research paper are developments in some countries to enact ex ante antitrust regulations that seek to limit the ability of digital platforms to provide effective advertising and other services. These rules ignore the well-recognised benefits that MSMEs derive from accessing them.
Attribution: Meghna Bal and Dr Vikash Gautam. A Survey-Based Assessment of the Impact of the Draft Digital Competition Bill, 2024 on MSMEs in India. March 2024, Esya Centre.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the Draft Omnibus Framework for recognizing Self- Regulatory Organisations for Regulated Entities of the Reserve Bank of India (Draft Framework) for public comments on December 21, 2023. The Esya Centre is pleased to be afforded an opportunity to respond to the Draft Regulations. Our response is divided into two parts. Part I provides a preliminary overview of our response and Part II delves deeper into specific aspects of the regulations, such as the need for precise definitions of regulated entity categories, clarity on the number of self-regulatory organisations per category, necessity of defined timelines for RBI decisions, and the inclusion of civil society organisations in the framework's functioning.
Attribution: Comments on the “Draft Omnibus Framework for Recognizing Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) for Regulated Entities (REs) of the Reserve Bank of India”. Issue No. 114, January 2024, Esya Centre.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) opened public consultations on the Draft (Determination of Turnover and Income) Regulations, 2023 (“Draft Regulations”) on December 22, 2023. The Esya Centre is pleased to be afforded an opportunity to respond to the Draft Regulations. The Draft Regulations clarify how turnover and income are to be determined for calculating penalties for anti-competitive agreements (s.3) and abuse of dominant position (s.4) under s. 27 of the Competition Act, 2002, or contraventions of the Act under s. 48. The response is divided into two parts, with Part I providing a general overview and Part II delving deeper into each submission.
Attribution: Response to the Public Consultation on “The Competition Commission of India (Determination of Turnover and Income) Regulations, 2023”. Issue No. 113, January 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) initiated public consultations for the Draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023 on November 10, 2023. The Esya Centre is pleased to be afforded an opportunity to respond to the Draft Bill. Our analysis, which examines each clause in detail, aims to unravel the complexities in the Bill. In doing so, we provide in-depth insights, particularly focused on the proposed inclusion of OTT services and news and current affairs publishers under the same regulatory framework as traditional broadcasters such as cable TV and radio.
Attribution: Response to the Draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill 2023; Issue No. 112, January 2024, Esya Centre.
Description: This report examines the challenges to implementing India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA). Seeking to understand the operational and technical hurdles faced by organisations to the Act’s enforcement, the report delves into aspects related to the implementation of consent mechanisms, provisions for children and persons with disabilities, and the intricacies of appointing data protection officers. Specifically, it explores the internal processes required for compliance and establishes the timelines necessary for meeting the DPDPA’s obligations.
Attribution: Meghna Bal and Gopal Jain. An Empirical Evaluation of the Implementation Challenges of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: Insights and Recommendations for the Way Forward. January 2024, Esya Centre.
This comprehensive report highlights the limitations of public financing and the need for collaborations such as public-private partnerships, green sustainable development loans and infrastructure investment funds. It proposes a strategic financing plan for green infrastructure at the state level to align financial and infrastructure planning to achieve sustainable development and climate change mitigation goals in Rajasthan.
This report examines the impact of generative AI on research ethics. We are rapidly heading towards a scenario where generative AI tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, play a crucial role in academic research. From conducting literature reviews and framing hypotheses to drafting surveys, generative AI-based applications can revolutionise each aspect of the academic research process.
This paper is an updated analysis of the impact of the 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on trading in crypto assets (referred to as VDAs – virtual digital assets – in the Indian Income Tax Act 1961) introduced in India in 2022. The 1% TDS levy seems intended to discourage speculative activity and increase traceability in the VDA ecosystem.
