TRAI Recommends Apex Body For Data Governance

In the immediate aftermath of the government introducing the new draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended an apex body for data governance and to steer India’s data economy.

The top body called the Data Digitisation and Monetisation Council (DDMC), would be formed by either amending the present law or enacting a new law, to oversee all the issues related to data, including digitisation, monetisation, sharing and storage.

The recommendation for the apex body comes as part of TRAI’s recommendations on a regulatory framework to promote the data economy in the country. The recommendations cover data centres, content delivery networks (CDNs) and internet exchanges (IXs). The telecom watchdog issued the document on November 18.

The telecom watchdog has made the recommendations at a time when the government also recommended setting up a Data Protection Board to resolve data-related issues.

What Would The DDMC Cover?

The DDMC would be responsible for data governance in the country and overseeing data centres, CDNs and IXs.

Further, the DDMC would also be responsible to put an overarching regulatory framework to ensure that the data is used ethically, both by the government as well as the businesses operating in India.

“The proposed body should have suitable representation from DoT (Department of Telecommunications) and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and IT), in addition to representatives from Central and State governments,” said the TRAI on the components and governing structure of the DDMC.

“The proposed body should be entrusted with the responsibility to review and prioritise the avenues which would require more concentrated efforts of data digitisation and fix timeframes accordingly,” said the TRAI in its recommendations.

Further, the TRAI said that DDMC should also assess the data digitisation requirements and define the process framework for the use of AI and related technologies in data processing, data sharing and data monetisation while ensuring the privacy and security of the data owner.

DDMC would also frame policies and incentivisation schemes for data digitisation, data sharing and data monetisation.

Comparing DDMC With Data Protection Board

As mentioned above, the government has also recommended setting up a Data Protection Board for all things data. Even as the TRAI recommended the DDMC, it added that establishing too many statutory bodies might confuse the sector.

“The Authority is also of opinion that the formation of too many statutory bodies creates confusion for the sector and organically, this work of steering the data digitization, data sharing, and data monetization can be entrusted to TRAI with suitable modifications in the TRAI Act,” said TRAI.

However, it appears that the two bodies would serve very different roles.

While the Data Protection Board’s main task is to ensure compliance with the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, the DDMC is tasked with promoting India’s data economy with frameworks and legislation.

The Data Protection Board would also report personal data breaches and levy penalties on Data Fiduciaries in case of non-compliance with the PDP Bill.