MeitY preparing cabinet note on data bill

The Ministry of Electronics and IT is preparing a formal note for the Union Cabinet on the proposed Data Protection Bill, officials aware of the matter told us. It will then be discussed by the cabinet before being placed for discussion in the upcoming Budget Session of the Parliament.

Yes, but: The Budget Session, which typically begins in the last week of January, with the Union Budget presented on Feb. 1, could be postponed this year owing to the exponential rise in Covid-19 cases.

Final call: “The cabinet will decide on the final provisions,” said a senior official, adding that MeitY will work on drafting the final language of the bill once it receives cabinet approval.

“MeitY is preparing the note that is likely to come up any time over the next few weeks in the Cabinet” as the final bill “has to be presented in the budget session”, a source said.

JPC recommendations: After nearly two years of deliberations, a joint parliamentary committee (JCP) submitted its report in Parliament on December 16.

It recommended that the scope of the bill be expanded to include both personal and non-personal data, and be renamed the Data Protection Bill. It also called for a single regulatory authority to oversee both personal and non-personal data.

It recommended that the government, in consultation with regulators, prepare an extensive policy on data localisation—that is, storing certain types of data within India’s borders.

The JCP also has asked that social media platforms be treated as content publishers, while providing broad exemptions to the government from the bill.

Big differences: But industry groupings have said the JCP included certain provisions without proper consultation and that certain contentious aspects needed more deliberation.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) spoke out against recommendations, including one in which social media intermediaries will be considered publishers in certain circumstances, and some parts of the data localisation norms. It also criticised the inclusion of non-personal data in the bill. HindiSoft