The BGA India Team led by Managing Director Ratan Shrivastava, wrote an update to clients on the withdrawal of India’s Personal Data Protection Bill and the new legislation being drafted.

Context

  • ●      India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on August 3 moved the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house in Parliament, to withdraw the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021 (2021 Bill). The bill was originally tabled in 2019 and, owing to its wide-ranging impact, was referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP) for review.
  • The recent move signals MeitY’s intent to propose fresh data protection legislation to Parliament that incorporates several amendments suggested by parliamentarians without diluting the bill’s privacy concerns. The withdrawal follows Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s statement last week that the tabling and parliamentary consideration of the 2021 Bill were still a few months away.

Significance

  • The 2021 Bill contained many contentious clauses which could potentially have disrupted business operations in India. Domestically, several industry representatives informally engaged with MeitY to flag concerns pertaining to the inclusion of non-personal data in the scope of the legislation, restrictions on cross-border data flows and mandatory data sharing requirements upon the request of government agencies.
  • The government is currently working on multiple tech sector regulations, including the Digital India Act (amendment to the IT Act), the National Data Governance Framework Policy and the IT Rules amendments. The revised draft of the data protection bill will likely be synchronized with other emerging regulations to ensure alignment and compatibility.

Implications

  • Companies should closely monitor the developments and participate in stakeholder consultation when they are started. The delay in tabling the bill may provide business entities an opportunity to prepare for potential compliance requirements and engage in fresh consultations that will be held on the revised bill.
  • Companies can expect the government to ensure ease of doing business, especially for startups, and not make the regulation overly prescriptive, but India is unlikely to significantly ease compliance requirements.

BGA will continue to keep you updated on developments in India as they occur. If you have any comments or questions, please contact BGA India Managing Director Ratan Shrivastava at ratan@bowergroup.com.

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Managing Director

Ratan is a senior executive and management consulting professional who has a proven track record in government, consulting and industry across India and Southeast Asia, with a wide network across stakeholders. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing growth strategies for both the public and private sector and has led diverse teams to secure new market opportunities. Prior to joining BGA, Ratan was at KPMG India where he helped the integration of the small and medium industry clusters, with the domestic and global aerospace, defense and space supply chains. He also served as an advisor at the Federation of ... Read More