India’s Personal Data Protection Bill gets cabinet approval

The union cabinet has approved the personal data protection bill for introduction in the ongoing winter session of parliament which concludes on December 13. 

“Data protection is an important issue globally. Interest of India and individuals will be protected with this,” minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said at a media briefing.

According to officials who were a part of the consultation process, the bill varies from the initial draft  introduced in August 2018 by a committee led by former Supreme Court justice BN Srikrishna. https://www.techcircle.in/2018/07/30/personal-data-protection-bill-why-the-draft-is-drawing-more-jeers-than-cheers/ 

The updated version was not provided by the cabinet for public discussion. According to the official mentioned, as per the new draft, “The government was in no mood to disrupt the current momentum on investment. However it takes a strong view of data access, security and privacy.”

The 213-page draft introduced in 2018 talks about data localisation as well as setting up a Data Protection Authority to deal with complaints. The draft also mandated the processing of data within the geography, with the exemption of business or ‘non-personal’ data which will now be dealt with under a separate framework https://www.techcircle.in/2019/09/16/kris-gopalakrishnan-led-panel-to-design-governance-framework-for-business-data