Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for united efforts to shape global standards for emerging technologies like social media and cryptocurrencies so that they are used to "empower democracy and not undermine it."
"We must also jointly shape global standards for emerging technologies such as social media and cryptocurrencies so that they are used to empower democracy, not undermine it," Prime Minister Modi said during his virtual speech at the Summit for the Democracy organized by the president of the United States, Joe Biden. .
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The government has said that it plans to introduce a reworked cryptocurrency bill at the current winter session of Parliament after the cabinet passes it and that the income earned from investing in cryptocurrencies is subject to tax.
"A bill on Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of the Official Digital Currency for its introduction in the Lok Sabha has been included in the Lok Sabha Bulletin-Part II as part of the governmental matters that are expected to be assumed," said the Minister of Finance , Nirmala Sitharaman, in a written response to the Casa on November 30.
The 2021 Cryptocurrency and Official Digital Currency Regulation Bill seeks to "create an enabling framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)." The cryptocurrency bill also seeks to ban all private cryptocurrencies while allowing "certain exceptions to promote the cryptocurrency's underlying technology and uses."
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Prime Minister Modi's comments on Friday come after he urged democratic nations on Nov. 18 to work together to ensure cryptocurrency doesn't end up in the wrong hands.
In the same month, the Prime Minister also chaired a meeting on the way forward for cryptocurrencies and related topics.
Officials during the meeting with Prime Minister Modi reportedly said that attempts to mislead young people through overly promising and non-transparent advertising must be stopped and that unregulated crypto markets cannot be allowed to become avenues for money laundering and terrorist financing.
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There was consensus that the measures taken by the government in this field will be "progressive and forward-thinking" and it will continue to engage proactively with experts and other stakeholders, the PTI news agency reported.
The government also formed an inter-ministerial committee on virtual currencies that presented its report along with a bill in 2019.
Last week, Nirmala Sitharaman also called for "collective global action" for the effective regulation of ever-changing technology and technology-driven payment systems. He said regulators are only "catching up" on regulating ever-evolving technology and therefore there is no single formula by which to regulate it.
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"Even when we are thinking nationally, there should be simultaneously a global mechanism through which we constantly monitor the movement of technology, so that if it is your cryptocurrency, if it is a technology-driven payment system, data privacy, either to ensure that data is used ethically, ”he said in a panel discussion on December 3.
"When you look at data as one of the revenue-generating options, regulating it will have to be a collective effort," Sitharaman said.
The cryptocurrency bill is among 26 new bills on the government's agenda at the Winter Session of Parliament that began on November 29 and ends on December 23.
