Ctrl+Alt+Delete on innovation? Digital Competition Bill has left Big Tech, startups flummoxed.

Illustration by Sadhana Saxena via AI

Synopsis
The draft Digital Competition Bill, a copy of Europe's untested Digital Markets Act, claims to regulate Big Tech but may stifle Indian startups instead. This rushed adoption of a foreign framework, without considering India's unique digital landscape, raises questions about the bill's true intent.

“There’s too many men, there's too many people Making too many problems… … Can't you see this is a land of confusion?” As the classic Genesis song 'Land of Confusion' plays in a co-working space in Gurugram, a sense of unease lingers among the startup founders. With aspirations of IPOs and billion-dollar valuations, these young entrepreneurs now face a regulatory hurdle — the recently proposed draft Digital Competition Bill (DCB). The DCB aims