India’s DPDPA: Bridging Legal Wisdom and Technological Foresight

By Dr. Amar Patnaik, Founder, A&N Legal Solutions LLP; Former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha & Dr. Damodar Sahu, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, Data Safeguard Inc.

India stands at a digital inflection point. With the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) 2023, we are not just embracing a new law—we are embracing a new digital contract between individuals, enterprises, and the state. This legislation is a long-awaited, much-needed leap towards ensuring data dignity, trust, and compliance in a fast-evolving digital economy.

Yet, the path to operationalizing the DPDPA is complex. Organizations, especially in regulated sectors like finance, e-commerce, health, and technology, are grappling with a pressing question:

How do we embed privacy into the DNA of our operations, across people, processes, and platforms?

Our answer is: Legal Interpretation + Adaptive Technology = Trustworthy Privacy Infrastructure.

This conviction led to the recent strategic partnership between Data Safeguard India and A&N Legal Solutions LLP—a union of legal excellence and technological innovation.

A New Model for Privacy Readiness

The idea behind this alliance is simple: India’s digital privacy framework requires an integrated, interdisciplinary solution. We must move beyond fragmented compliance checklists and instead foster a culture of privacy-by-design—grounded in law, empowered by AI.

At the heart of our collaboration is the ID-PRIVACY® platform—an AI-powered privacy management platform engineered in India, for India. Tailored to meet DPDPA requirements, it delivers capabilities like Universal Consent Management, Data Discovery & Redaction, Privacy Impact Assessment, and Data Subject Rights fulfillment—automated, auditable, and always evolving.

Combined with A&N Legal’s domain expertise—built through years of advising companies, contributing to policymaking, and litigating complex data cases—we offer a comprehensive privacy-readiness framework.

Technology Must Serve Law, Not the Other Way Around

As we co-author this article, our shared experience tells us: the greatest risk in India’s privacy journey is not non-compliance—it is misaligned compliance. Many organizations may deploy software tools that claim to “check the box,” yet fail to interpret the legal obligations correctly, or lack flexibility for future regulatory shifts.

This is where our partnership stands out. We begin with legal first principles and extend them with AI-powered operationalization. This means:

● Every PIA/DPIA is mapped to real legal risk.

● Every consent event is linked to purpose, duration, and jurisdictional logic.

● Every audit is not just a report, but a story of accountability.

The Bigger Vision: Building India’s Privacy Infrastructure

Privacy is not just a legal right—it is a public good. As India becomes a global digital powerhouse, our institutions, companies, and startups must evolve a trust-centric mindset. Just as the country once built physical infrastructure—roads, ports, power—we now need digital privacy infrastructure that is trustworthy, scalable, and context-aware.

This partnership between Data Safeguard and A&N Legal Solutions is a step towards building that infrastructure—for India, from India.

Looking Ahead

The DPDPA is not the endgame. It's a beginning. As more rules, sectoral regulations, and enforcement actions unfold, organizations must stay agile. They must ask:

● Are we resilient to data breaches and regulatory scrutiny?

● Do our employees understand privacy responsibilities?

● Can our systems adapt to evolving global frameworks (like GDPR, CPRA)?

Together, our organizations are committed to helping clients answer these questions—not in silos, but holistically.

Because in a digital Bharat, data protection is not just a compliance goal—it’s a business imperative, a governance principle, and a societal promise.