Centre may introduce new data protection bill

The Central government may put aside the current version of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 that does not comprehensively address the requirements of the country’s changing technology landscape and introduce a fresh privacy bill, said people aware of the matter.

The government plans to introduce fresh legislation that can cater to the ongoing “sea change in the local and global technology (environment)”.

The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) which submitted its report in December 2021 with a new draft bill to Parliament. This bill is seen by some as potentially detrimental to the India’s technology and startup ecosystem.

“Since it’s a JCP draft Bill, the government can only tweak the clauses to some extent but the provisions cannot be changed completely… A better option is to bring a new Bill altogether which is aligned with the current times,” an official said.

“The compliance requirements from the industry as per this draft Bill will completely cripple Indian companies and not Big Tech,” a source was quoted saying.

CT Bureau