India-Australia ties built on trust: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the foundation of India-Australia relations lies in mutual trust and respect, as he along with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese addressed the Indian diaspora at a mega event here.

India- Australia Relations

• Historical Perspective:
  • Australia and India for the first time established diplomatic relations in the pre-Independence period, when the Consulate General of India was first opened as a Trade Office in Sydney in 1941.
  • India-Australia relations touched a historic low when the Australian Government condemned India’s 1998 nuclear tests.
  • In 2014, Australia signed a Uranium supply deal with India, the first of its kind with a country that is a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in recognition of India’s “impeccable” non-proliferation record.
• Shared Values:
  • Shared values of pluralistic, Westminster-style democracies, Commonwealth traditions, expanding economic engagement, and increasing high-level interaction have underpinned the India-Australia bilateral relationship.
  • Common traits, including strong, vibrant, secular, and multicultural democracies, a free press, an independent judicial system, and English language, serve as the foundation for closer co-operation.
• People-to-people Ties:
  • India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. As per the 2021 Census, around 9.76 lakh people in Australia reported their ancestry as Indian origin, making them the second largest group of overseas-born residents in Australia.
• Strategic Ties:
  • In 2020,Prime ministers of both the countries elevated bilateral relationship from Strategic Partnership to Comprehensive strategic Partnership during India-Australia Leaders’ Virtual Summit.
  • In 2021, the prime ministers of both the countries met during COP26 at Glasgow.
  • In 2022, there has been a series of high-level engagements and exchange of ministerial visits in 2022 and in 2023 including India-Australia virtual summit and Foreign Ministers meet. Several key announcements were made during 2nd India-Australia Virtual Summit including:
    • A Letter of Intent on Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement to foster the exchange of skills.
• Defence Cooperation:
  • The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue took place in September 2021, and the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Australia visited India in June 2022.
  • The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) was signed during the Virtual Summit in June 2020 to enhance defence cooperation.
  • Joint military exercises:
    • Australia will host the "Malabar" exercises in August 2023, with participation from India, Japan, and the US.
    • India has been invited to join the Talisman Sabre exercises in 2023.
• China Factor:
  • Australia-China ties became strained due to several reasons including Australia banning Huawei from 5G network, call for enquiry into the origins of Covid-19 and Slamming china’s human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hongkong.
    • China responded by imposing trade barriers on Australian exports, and by cutting off all ministerial contact.
  • India is facing Chinese aggression along the border which has been highlighted by incidents such as Galwan valley clash.
  • Both Australia and India support a rules-based international order and they are seeking to forge regional institutions in the Indo-Pacific which are inclusive, promote further economic integration.
    • The countries’ participation in Quad (India, Australia, US, Japan) is an example of their convergence of interests, based on shared concerns.
• Multilateral Cooperation:
  • Both are members of the Quad, Commonwealth, Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia Pacific Partnership on Climate and Clean Development, and have participated in the East Asia Summits.
  • Both countries have also been cooperating as members of the Five Interested Parties (FIP) in the World Trade Organization context.
  • Australia is an important player in Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and supports India''s membership of the organisation.
• Economic Cooperation:
  • Economic Cooperation Trade Agreement (ECTA):
    • It is the first free trade agreement signed by India with a developed country in a decade which entered into force in December 2022.
  • Reduction in Duties:
    • It has resulted in an immediate reduction of duty to zero on 96% of Indian exports to Australia in value (that is 98% of the tariff lines) and zero duty on 85% of Australia’s exports (in value) to India.
  • Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI):
    • India and Australia are partners in the trilateral arrangement along with Japan which seeks to enhance the resilience of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific Region.
  • Bilateral trade:
    • Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia’s 9 largest trading partner.
    • Bilateral trade between India and Australia was US$ 27.5 billion in 2021, there is potential for it to reach around US$ 50 billion in five years.
• Cooperation in Education Sector:
  • The Mechanism for Mutual Recognition of Educational Qualifications (MREQ) was signed in March 2023. This will facilitate mobility of students between India and Australia.
    • Deakin University and University of Wollongong are planning to open campuses in India.
    • More than 1 lakh Indian students are pursuing higher education degrees in Australian universities, making Indian students the second largest cohort of foreign students in Australia.
• Cooperation on Clean Energy:
  • In February 2022, countries signed a Letter of Intent on New and Renewable Energy for cooperation to reduce the cost of renewable energy technologies, including ultra low-cost solar and clean hydrogen.
  • India announced Australian Dollars(AUD) 10 million for Pacific Island Countries under the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
  • Both the countries committed to USD 5.8 million to the three-year India-Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership.

Update NPR to enumerate self during next Census

• If citizens want to exercise the right to fill the Census form on their own rather than through government enumerators, they will have to first update their National Population Register (NPR) details online.
• The NPR, first put together in 2010 and updated in 2015, already has the details of 119 crore people.
• Census 2021, which has been postponed indefinitely, will be the first digital Census giving citizens an opportunity to “self-enumerate” as and when it is conducted.

The Census is conducted in two phases.

• The first phase — the houselisting operations and housing census — is to be conducted with simultaneous updating of NPR.
• Population enumeration is the second and the main phase, which collects details on key social and economic parameters.
• According to a collection of reports released by Home Minister, “self-enumeration for Census will be provided to only those households that have updated the NPR online”. “During self-enumeration in NPR, Aadhaar / mobile number is mandatorily collected,” the report said.
• The Office of the Registrar of General of India (ORGI), which conducts the Census, has developed a “self-enumeration (SE)” portal which is presently available in English only. The yet-to-be-launched mobile-friendly portal will allow users to register the mobile number in the NPR database, self-enumerate and fill the details under houselisting operations.

Draft of Digital India Bill to be released in June: Minister

A full-fledged draft of the Digital India Bill, set to be the biggest revamp of laws governing the Internet in India since the Information Technology Act, 2000, and subsequent amendments, will be published in the first week of June, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said

Regulating AI

“Our approach right now in the draft is about regulating [AI] through the prism of user harm,” the minister noted.

So there are ‘no go areas’ for these technologies. The approach would be to create “guardrails” for high risk AI systems

The act which is a successor to the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, will impact a host of entities on the Internet, including social media, e-commerce, and artificial intelligence-based platforms.

The IT Act, 2000

• It is the primary law in India for matters related to cybercrime and e-commerce, giving legal sanction to e-commerce and transactions, enabling e-governance, and preventing cybercrime.
• Under the law, for any crime involving a computer or network located in India, foreign nationals can also be charged.
• The act gives legal recognition to digital signatures.

Section 66A of the IT Act.

New law for the Internet

• The IT Act needs an update since it was framed for an Internet era that looked very different from the Internet of today.
• Objectives – To ensure an open and safe Internet in the country, to ensure users’ rights and reduce risks for them online, accelerate the growth of technology innovation.
• The Bill is a key pillar of an overarching framework of technology regulations the Centre is building, including:
  1. Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022
  2. Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022
  3. Policy for non-personal data governance

Safe harbour

• Safe harbour – As given under Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000, it is the legal immunity that online intermediaries enjoy against content posted by users on their platforms.
• Due diligence – This is available as long as these platforms abide by certain due diligence requirements, such as censoring content when asked by the government or courts.
• Origin – The concept originally came from Section 230 of the United States’ Communications Decency Act, which has been termed one of the foundational laws behind the modern Internet.
• Web 2.o – It is one of the main reasons behind the meteoric rise of Internet giants such as Facebook that have defined the Web 2.0 era where users can post content on the internet.

Revisit the norm

• Complex intermediaries – The idea behind revisiting the concept of the safe harbour is that the intermediaries have become more complex.
• Hence, there is a need to classify different types of intermediaries and form relevant regulations for each of them.
• IT Rules of 2021 – The government has reined in the safe harbour by introducing additional due diligence requirements.
• Such requirements include, appointing India-based employees to cooperate with the government and address users’ queries.

Digital India Bill deal with

• Cybercrimes – The proposed law will also regulate a range of crimes include cyberbullying, doxxing, and identity theft.
• Misinformation – The weaponisation of misinformation under the garb of free speech will not be entertained and will be regulated under the Bill.
• Adjudicatory mechanism – An effective mechanism that is easily accessible, deliver timely remedies, resolve cyber disputes, and create cyber jurisprudence will also be explored under the Digital India Bill.