Big Tech's new reality in India: Stricter regulation, face-off with telcos

All of a sudden, global tech giants are grappling with the prospect of more stringent regulation and domestic telco's demands for a level playing field

Global Big Tech in India is being subjected to increasing scrutiny -- from the government, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), parliamentary committees and business lobbies, especially the telecom companies (telcos). And just like in Europe, the focus in India is similar -- to rein in their growing domination in the country’s digital sweepstakes.
 

Last month, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance recommended a new digital competition law to scrutinise “systematically important digital intermediaries” that will be identified on the basis of their revenues, market cap, businesses and the number of end users, putting Google, Meta, Apple Inc and even