India befriends Big Tech as Trump tariffs knock on door, aided by a string of biz-friendly moves
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: A string of measures in the field of information technology has suddenly pivoted India into a friendlier place for American Big Tech firms to do business in—moves that policy stakeholders believe are timely and useful, given US president Donald Trump's impending tariff hikes.
Two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, requesting anonymity, that representatives of the US government have told their Indian counterparts during meetings held in the US over the past 90 days that they expect Big Tech to “keep receiving the Centre's support" in the long run. On Friday, India’s companies law court issued what has been seen as a favourable verdict on Google’s appeal against a ₹936.44 crore fine imposed by the competition commission 2022.
The fine—for allegedly stifling innovation and promoting self-preferencing in the market—was slashed by nearly three-fourths. Shortly before that in March, Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, proposed to abolish a long-standing 6% ‘equalization levy’ charged on the earnings of foreign online advertisers that do not have a presence in India.
US majors Google and Meta had lobbied against this levy, claiming it was unfair “given Big Tech’s overall positive impact in India," according to a senior executive who regularly represents these companies to the Indian government. Several other such measures are seen to have tilted in favour of Big Tech in the past year.
For instance, a proposed Digital India Act, a draft of which, seen by Mint, was clearly modelled on Europe’s strong-on-regulation Digital Markets Act, has now been “shelved" indefinitely. The Act, among other things, sought to regulate issues of bias and harm in artificial
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