Tough Times Ahead

Finally, India's Data Protection Bill will face the floor test in Parliament in the winter session. Last year, the Justice Srikrishna Committee, after a detailed consultation, had presented the draft Bill to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The Bill seeks to regulate the processing of personal data of individuals by government and private entities incorporated in India and abroad.

The Bill says that when it comes to personal data, the golden copy (the master version of data) abroad must have a silver copy (the mirrored version) in India. Also, it seeks to ensure that certain critical personal data is entirely stored in India. While companies have already started gearing towards data localisation, the transitioning cost has always been the talking point. Many others are seeing this as a opportunity. For instance, the Adanis are getting into the data centre business. But the challenge is getting global social media giants such as Facebook to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the national-level Data Protection Authority which will be set up under the Act.