Personal Data Protection Bill to see the light of the day soon: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union minister of IT and Electronics, Ashwini Vaishnaw, is looking to upload the revised Personal Data Protection Bill soon. While speaking at Business Today’s India @100 Conclave, he said very soon, the revised draft will be meeting everyone’s expectations.

“From entire country, there is an expectation that the bill should be very neatly drafted, it should be easy to understand, it should be relevant with the times, it should create that online environment where trust and safety of the users get the primacy,” said minister Vaishnaw.

He further explained that the personal data protection bill has been in the works for a long. If one were to look at the journey of this bill, when the joint parliamentary committee suggested a series of amendments in the bill of 99 sections, there were 81 amendments suggested. Then there were about 17 major recommendations on top of it. So, the government had no choice but to redraft the bill, which is practically completed. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that, even though there is a very long series of consultations, which have gone, still we must thoroughly consult with the people with all the stakeholders.”

He states the three fundamental things about the Personal data protection bill. “First and foremost is that the users have a right to their data. So how that data is used, what is the consent mechanism which is there?” Second, he highlighted the established principles of purpose limitation. “The other things which have got so well established all across the globe, those should be very much ingrained within the bill,” said minister Vaishnaw.

And the third most important thing he talked about is how we make sure that every person in this country, every citizen of this country, is able to access the grievance redressal mechanism in a very simple and very highly accessible way. So the entire implementation should be born digital, it should be born digital.

A reason why the government is not only looking at revamping the data sector but other sectors too, which basically support the data economy. For instance, the telecom sector, is regulated by a law which was of 1885, 1933 and 1950.