India Internet Governance Forum IIGF 2023, 3rd Edition In New Delhi

India Internet Governance Forum 2023 (IIGF-2023) will be organized on 5 December 2023 in New Delhi. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder forum that brings together representatives of diverse groups to discuss public policy issues related to the Internet.

• This is India Internet Governance Forum 2023, which is the third edition of IIGF after the first two successful editions of IIGF in the year 2021 and 2022.
• The function will be addressed by Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

Theme for the year 2023: 

• “Moving forward while accommodating India’s digital agenda”

The objective of the IIGF’23 event:

• To discuss the roadmap for digitalization and highlight India's role in international policy development on Internet governance.

Regarding IIGF:

• It has been formed in accordance with IGF-Paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum.
• Thus, the India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF) is actually an Indian initiative associated with the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).
• Objective/Function: The Forum serves as a platform for various stakeholders to discuss about public policy issues related to the Internet.

Internet Governance:

• Meaning and Definition: Internet governance defined as the application of Internet technology to develop shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making processes and programs primarily by governments, private sector and civil society in their respective roles Is.
• In a coordinated manner, it also includes the development and coordination of technical standards, operation of critical infrastructure, and public policy issues related to the Internet.
• It also includes the processes that promote the development and use of the Internet.
• Areas of Internet Governance: Internet governance includes Internet Protocol addressing (IP Addressing), Domain Name System (DNS), routing, technological innovation, standardization, security, public policy, privacy, legal issues, cyber norms, intellectual property and taxation issues.
• Dimensions of Internet Governance: Its dimensions include physical infrastructure, code or logical facts, content, and security related issues.

India's internet connectivity status:

• Current Internet Capacity:
• India is the country with the largest internet connectivity in the world with over 800 million users. Additionally, India is also said to have the second largest broadband subscriptions in the world and the country with the highest data consumption per user per month.
• Future Potential:
• There will be 1.2 billion Indian users in the future under the 5-G and 'Bharat-Net' rural broadband connectivity network project. India will thus represent the largest presence in the global Internet.
• Cooperation to other countries:
• India is also supporting countries in the Global South to improve internet access. These include those countries which are not able to give the necessary impetus to the development of their economy due to lack of internet access and digitization.