Govt have a lot to finalise regarding the egaming framework

The union government is drawing up an e🎃xtensive framework to regulate online gaming companies including proposals for time-bound retention of specific user data and robust grievance redressal mechanisms, senior gov𓆉ernment officials told the Economic Times.

Final stages: An inter-ministerial task force with secretaries🧸 of finance, home, IT, sports and youth affairs, as well as officials from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and Niti Aayog are working on the rules, expected to be out soon, sources said.

“We are in the initial stages of discussions. A nodal minist🔯ry which will administer the rules is yet to be finalised,” one official said, adding that “it must be a light-touch framework which co-exists with the regulations that states such as Rajasthanꦚ and Karnataka have already developed for their jurisdiction.”

Light touch: Pointing to gaming being a very nasceꦅnt sector, the official noted that the government does not “wish to go for over-regulatioꦕn and stifle innovation in the area.” Among the approaches being debated is including the gaming sector under the purview of the Information Technology Rules.

“With social media intermediaries, there are now defined guidel♛ines of dos and don’ts. The (IT) ministry has emergency powers which it cꦡan invoke under various sections of the IT Act. We must look at including those for the gaming sector as well,” a person involved in the discussions said, as reported by ET.