Mumbai, Sep 21 (IANS): Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said on Wednesday that the country is creating one of the largest datasets programmes where anonymised non-personal data will be available for the entire AI ecosystem to boost the startup ecosystem.

"The use of these data sets will be allowed only to Indian startups and companies," Chandrasekhar said during the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) here.

In a fireside chat with Kunal Shah, CEO, CRED, the minister said that some of the dataset will be made available to foreign companies who want to come and create opportunities in India.

"We are also creating joint partnerships between Indian and foreign companies, especially in the DeepTech area. The government will provide capital access including government contracts to these partnerships to bolster the entire Indian business sector," Chandrasekhar emphasised.

On semiconductors, he said that the government will invest $200 million in design startups.

"We are also going to launch a digital university soon," the minister informed.

Commenting on the Data Protection Bill, Chandrasekhar said: "We withdrew the Data Protection Bill 2021 because it had become too complex. As per the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, consumer rights must be protected while also making things easy for startups and innovators."

He added that the country will soon see a Digital Personal Data Protection Bill which will be a contemporary global standard framework of laws.

"We will also bring in a Digital India Act that will replace the 22-year-old IT Act," he reiterated.