Nasscom urges govt for sandbox approach for tech regulations

India needs a sandbox approach in order to regulate emerging technological advancements which are disruptive and creating a sea change in today's regulatory environment, the Nasscom said Thursday.

The Sandbox approach will allow companies to test products in a closed environment, a particular geography or among a set of users, before they are allowed roll out commercially meeting all regulations.

There are lot of challenges to the regulators to protect the citizens from possible fallouts from such disruptive innovations as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data analytics and blockchain, Nasscom president Debjani Ghosh said.

"Tech regulation is complicated. It's a completely new world and it should be consultative and adoptive. India needs sandbox approach where policy makers, academicians, industry figure out and create a framework," Ghosh said on the sidelines of the first Nasscom International SME Conclave here.

Indian capital market regulator, SEBI, also said last month it was contemplating to come out with a sandbox policy for tech companies which will allow companies to test products in a closed environment.

Ghosh said there should be focus on discussions at the early stage of apprehensions and problems which are required to be solved in the new tech environment where AI, machine learning, big data analytics, distributed ledger technology, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are seeping into mainstream lives.

"Early stage of discussion needs to be done to fully understand the problem you are trying to solve as there may be many ways to solve that," she said.