The Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the Personal Data Protection Bill. The Bill will provide a framework for management of personal data, including its processing, by public and private corporations.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Bill would be introduced in Parliament during the ongoing Winter Session. The Bill is likely to contain broad guidelines on collection, storage and processing of personal data, consent of individuals, penalties and compensation, code of conduct and an enforcement model.
Last week, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said the government would soon introduce a robust and balanced Personal Data Protection Bill in Parliament, adding that India would never compromise on data sovereignty.
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The Justice Srikrishna panel report on data protection, which was placed before the Cabinet last year, had recommended sweeping changes to make data collectors more accountable.
The panel had suggested a revamp in the consent mechanism under the new data protection framework, asserting that consent has to be free, informed, specific, clear and capable of being withdrawn, for it to be valid.
Though it's not clear how much the draft has been tweaked by the Cabinet, it's certain that the changes in the existing system would impact multinational companies including Google, Facebook, Visa, Mastercard among others.
Edited by Manoj Sharma with agency inputs