The Indian government was working on a data protection bill but then withdrew a bill which presented in 2019 as it frightened big technological giants like Facebook and Google.
As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tougher control of internet firms, the 2019 law had suggested strict limits on cross-border data flows and advocated granting Indian government the authority to request user data from companies.
According to a government announcement on Wednesday, the decision was made as a result of numerous revisions to the 2019 bill that were suggested by a parliamentary panel’s review, which made a new “complete legal framework” necessary. The announcement also stated that the government would now submit a new bill.
According to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the government has begun crafting the new bill, which is “in good advanced stages” and would soon be made public.
In the budget session of the legislature, which generally lasts from January to February, the government hopes to pass the new measure and have it become law by the start of 2023, he added.
The 2019 privacy bill was intended to safeguard Indian residents and create a “data protection authority,” but big tech companies were worried that it may make compliance more difficult and necessitate more data storage.
Prasanto Roy, a consultant based in New Delhi who regularly monitors India’s technology policy, said: “It is wonderful that there would be a redraft from scratch.”
However, India is still without a privacy law. A common privacy legislation may have unified this and left data regulation open to a wide range of sectoral rules.
Vaishnaw responded that the process won’t be that long because the legislative panel that assessed the previous law had already obtained input from industry when asked about stakeholder consultation on the new bill.
