New Delhi, Apr 19 (Agency) The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the draft Cinematograph Act 2023 seeking to curb content piracy which has been hurting the film and entertainment industry. The legislation will be brought for consideration and approval of Parliament in the upcoming session. Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Anurag Thakur said the bill to curb piracy had been introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2019 and thereafter suggestions came from the Standing Committee. “(Subsequently), we also had a comprehensive discussion on it with participation from the general public, stakeholders and the industry,” Thakur said in Hindi after the Cabinet meeting.
The Minister said that best international practices have been incorporated into it (draft Cinematography Bill) so that the Indian film industry does not suffer losses from piracy. He further said, “This bill will live upto the expectations of the industry. We had wider consultations with all the stakeholders, from international film makers like motion pictures to the Indian film industry, from different regions to the national level. So, all stakeholders have been consulted. Public consultation has happened. Inter-ministerial consultation has happened and I am sure this bill is going to satisfy each and everyone without getting into any controversy.” The Cabinet also approved the National Quantum Mission with a budgetary provision of Rs 6,003 crore to accelerate quantum technology led economic growth. The new mission targets developing intermediate scale quantum computers with 50-1000 physical qubits in 8 years in various platforms like superconducting and photonic technology. Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh noted that the government had in the past nine years taken many ‘path-breaking’ decisions such as opening of space sector for private firms to promote science and technology.
“In the series of such revolutionary decisions, National Quantum Mission is one of the two or three most important decisions in the past nine years of the Modi government. India today is one of the biggest utilizers of information technology. In other words, we are one of the biggest stakeholders as far as Information technology (IT) is concerned. Quantum technology is the one which is essentially related to information processing. … This is the technology which makes the information processing faster, more authentic, more precise, more secure and also more authentic,” said Singh. “This National Quantum Mission is going to give India a quantum jump in the world arena,” he stated. The Minister said that only six countries — US, Canada, Austria, Finland, China and France currently have this technology but they all are at the R&D stage. “None of them actually have started application of it and therefore we are also going to be at par,” Singh said. A government statement said that the National Quantum Mission will help develop magnetometers with high sensitivity in atomic systems and Atomic Clocks for precision timing, communications and navigation. It will also support design and synthesis of quantum materials such as superconductors, novel semiconductor structures and topological materials for fabrication of quantum devices.