The parliamentary standing committee on IT has examined and approved the draft digital personal data protection bill (DPDPB), Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
This development is good news for data center operators who can potentially get more enterprises to host their data in India.
“I would like to share some good news that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and communications, which is the committee which deals with this subject, before the bill is taken to the Parliament, have in advance examined it, and then given a big thumbs up,” Vaishnaw said at the Nasscom Technology Leadership Forum (NTLF) 2023. This was reported by Moneycontrol.
The government published the much-awaited draft digital personal data protection bill in November 2022. The revised bill focuses only on personal data, thereby doing away with regulating the use of non-personal data.
The proposed legislation stipulates the need for a data fiduciary, which is an organization responsible for processing user data. This entity is required to provide a detailed and easily understandable notice to users regarding the data that is being collected. Additionally, the legislation mandates that users should have the right to grant, manage, and retract their consent for the sharing of their information.
Apart from this, the bill states that the data fiduciary shall not undertake tracking or behavioral monitoring of children or advertising directed at children. It mandates penalties of up to Rs 500 crore for non-compliance.
A fresh draft
In August 2022, the government withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha. The Joint Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, headed by BJP member P P Chaudhary, had tabled its report in Lok Sabha on December 16, 2021.
According to reports Vaishnaw said that the joint committee gave a very good report in which they have recommended 81 amendments in a Bill of 99 sections.
“Over and above that, there are 12 more major recommendations. So with this as background, there was no way but to put a fresh draft. “Without compromising with any of the principles of privacy or with the SC judgement. We have prepared a new draft. We have completed the Parliament’s process today and very soon we will be taking the new draft through the approval process: Very soon hopefully by the budget session we should be able to get the new law passed,” said Vaishnaw.
Back then, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government will come up with a comprehensive framework covering all aspects of the digital economy with dedicated rules for data privacy, emerging technologies, and data governance framework.
According to sources, the next version of the bill along with the IT Act amendment, national data governance framework etc will be placed in Parliament to address all issues of the IT sector, including data privacy.
“After considerable deliberation, and examining of the report, it has found that there is a need for a comprehensive redrawing of the laws and rules, taking into account some of the JCP’s comments and the emerging challenges and opportunities that the contemporary challenges and future opportunities that arise here,” the minister said.
