Plans To Include Data Regulation Norms In Digital India Act: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The government plans to add data regulation norms in a new Digital India Act, said the Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

In an event at the Foreign Correspondent Club on 5G on Friday (November 25), the Minister of State said the latest draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act focuses on the data protection of Indian citizens.

“It (DPDP) does not intend to appoint a regulator and create regulation for the data ecosystem. That is down the road when we create a new bill for Digital India Act. This is a bill which narrowly focuses on data protection of consumers,” Chandrasekhar was quoted as saying by PTI.

The government issued a new draft of the data protection bill after it withdrew the earlier draft in August 2022. A joint parliamentary committee (JPC) recommended 81 amendments to the draft bill, following which the government scrapped it and brought out the draft Personal Data Protection Bill on November 18.

After the bill had been scrapped, Chandrasekhar said the bill would have caused the compliance burden for startups to increase significantly. The new draft bill has significantly fewer clauses to help reduce compliance and features simple language to enable easy interpretation of the law by individuals and companies alike.

The Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said that the draft Personal Data Protection Bill would be tabled at the Budget 2023 session. He also talked about the criticism around the draft DPDB and stated that the Supreme Court had already laid down the process after doing a lot of checks and balances. 

However, immediately as the draft bill was presented to the public for comments, it attracted a lot of controversy surrounding the various clauses and norms prescribed within the bill. From the independence of the data protection board to user privacy, the new draft bill has brought a slew of questions along with it.

Chandrasekhar also talked about 5G at the event. The minister said that the next-gen mobile networks are based on an open technology ecosystem which allows India to lead the segment just by being a consumer.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 5G on October 1, 2022, telecom operators have been quick to take on the mantle to make 5G available across the country. Recently, Mukesh Ambani-led Jio also announced that 5G was available across all 33 districts in Gujarat.