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Framing India’s Priorities for WSIS+20: Key Takeaways from the MEITY’S Multi-stakeholder Consultation on Internet Governance
Framing India’s Priorities for WSIS+20: Key Takeaways from the MEITY’S Multi-stakeholder Consultation on Internet Governance

July 21, 2025

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As the world approaches the 20-year milestone of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), India is playing an active role in shaping the next phase of global digital governance. On 4 July 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) convened a multistakeholder consultation to gather national perspectives on the WSIS+20 Elements Paper, ahead of the Zero Draft expected in August 2025. The discussion brought together voices from government, industry, academia, and civil society to explore India’s priorities and shape its formal response to this critical global framework.

What is WSIS+20?

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), launched by the United Nations in 2003 and 2005, created a global roadmap for digital inclusion and internet governance. The upcoming WSIS+20 Review will assess progress and shape new commitments around emerging challenges such as AI, misinformation, cybersecurity, and platform accountability.

The current consultation is part of India’s broader effort to align national priorities with the global digital agenda.

India’s Digital Progress

Participants of the multistakeholder consultation acknowledged India’s significant achievements in building inclusive digital infrastructure:

  • Scalable public platforms like Aadhaar, Digi locker, and UPI
  • Linguistic and script diversity in online access
  • Internship and fellowship opportunities under MeitY’s initiatives

These milestones reflect India’s unique model of digital public infrastructure (DPI), and MeitY as well as the participants expressed interest in highlighting them in India’s official inputs to the Zero Draft.

Ongoing and Emerging Challenges

The consultation also surfaced concerns and priorities that need continued focus and monitoring:

  • Bridging the digital divide, particularly for marginalised groups and persons with disabilities
  • Human rights in digital spaces, calling for a rights-based, inclusive framework
  • Promoting openness, including open data, open-source models, and platform interoperability
  • Algorithmic accountability, with a focus on responsible AI and transparency
  • Fair digital markets, with suggestions to reference India’s steps in regulating big tech via bodies like the Competition Commission of India and the Central Consumer Protection Authority
  • Taxation in the digital economy, particularly tackling tax evasion by global digital platforms

Strengthening Governance Mechanisms

Stakeholders, however, stressed the need for robust, inclusive, and agile governance structures:

  • Stronger multistakeholder cooperation, including more regular engagement beyond consultations
  • Improved data access and reporting, possibly through a single-window system to support better policymaking
  • Tackling digital harms, such as misinformation, deepfakes, and low user awareness
  • Building digital capacity, especially for underserved populations

There was a general consensus that these themes should find space in the Zero Draft and guide global norms for an inclusive framework of dynamic and evolving internet governance.

Recommendations for the Zero Draft

Participants proposed several themes for inclusion in the Zero Draft:

  • Highlight India’s DPI approach as a model for inclusive and scalable innovation
  • Support open AI models tailored to local languages and needs
  • Revive the Global Digital Solidarity Fund to support developing countries in bridging the digital divide
  • Address the digital gig economy, ensuring that platform workers and emerging forms of work are recognised in global frameworks
  • Broaden internet governance definitions to include startups and remain tech-agnostic

The emphasis was on making the framework inclusive, responsive to national contexts, and development oriented.

Framing India’s Digital Priorities

Participants recommended that India seek a broad-based national consensus on internet governance, and ensure its inputs reflect:

  • A commitment to openness with sovereignty
  • A rights and development-based approach to digital policy
  • A vision that includes both large and small ecosystem players

It was also suggested that terminology used in global texts  such as “digital economy” and “internet governance” must be inclusive, tech-agnostic, and multistakeholder in nature. Further, some participants suggested including critical digital infrastructure such as domain names, UPI, and even quantum-related technologies as part of India’s contribution to global digital cooperation discourse.

Conclusion: India’s Role in the Global Digital Future

As digital technologies reshape economies and societies, WSIS+20 offers an opportunity to redefine global digital governance. India’s proactive consultation reflects its intent to contribute meaningfully, not just as a participant, but as a thought leader with unique institutional models and inclusive development practices. With the right framing and continued stakeholder engagement, India can help shape a digital future that is inclusive, rights-respecting, and rooted in global cooperation.

A wide range of companies may find it useful to follow the WSIS+20 process more closely including those involved in digital public infrastructure, AI and language technologies, platform governance, data-driven services, cloud and connectivity, compliance tools, and digital inclusion. As global discussions evolve on topics such as interoperability, algorithmic transparency, digital competition, and cross-border data flows, firms operating at the intersection of technology, policy, and public impact may find opportunities to contribute perspectives or learn from emerging norms.


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