Data - the Open cast Mine

Recently, the Indian government withdrew the controversial ‘Personal Data Protection Bill’ from Parliament, stating that it is working on bringing a ‘comprehensive legal framework’ for regulating digital space. But the question is why The PM Modi-led BJP government chose to pull back after the joint parliamentary committee suggested 81 changes, which was recommended by Justice B N Srikrishna Committee has submitted its report on “Data Protection Framework” to the Government?

The Committee was constituted by the union government in July 2017, to deliberate on a data protection framework. The Bill lays out provisions on data storage, making it mandatory for a copy of personal data to be stored in India. It was the most stringent law to protect the netizens for providing privacy. However, few global corporations were opposed to it.

For tech giants, this bill gave sleepless nights. Besides data localisation and data processing restrictions, the privacy bill put a lot of pressure on tech companies not to misuse users' data. For instance, sharing data without consent would entail a fine of Rs 15 crores or 4% of global turnover. Similarly, a data breach or inaction would entail a fine of Rs 5 crore or 2% of global turnover.

At the same time, the data protection bill was criticised heavily by privacy advocates and tech giants as it gave the Indian government the power to obtain any user's non-personal data from companies. The withdrawal of the privacy bill has drawn mixed emotions from various stakeholders.

The former NITI Aayog chief Amitabh Kant believes that withdrawing the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, is a progressive move. He said that the new version of the bill must strike the right balance between protecting individual data, promoting innovation, giving an impetus to the digital economy, and enabling India to leapfrog technologically. At the same time, experts said the bill's withdrawal hands a victory to the global tech giants, which opposed it to shield their data domination.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said what else the government could have done when the JPC recommended 81 amendments to a 99 sections bill. "Along with that, there were 12 major recommendations, too," said Chandrasekhar. He said to bring the bill again; taking all of these into account is only democratic.

Further, he said this would soon be replaced by a comprehensive modern framework of global standard laws, including digital privacy laws for contemporary and future challenges.

Ahead of data privacy laws, the once banned Google Maps' 'Street View' has successfully made its way into India. The Indian government previously denied permission twice for its operation, citing security concerns.

At this present circumstances, Google was able to meet the regulatory requirements due to India's newly introduced geospatial policy. As per the policy, foreign map operators can provide panoramic imagery by licensing data from local partners. In this case, Google has partnered with Tech Mahindra and Genesys to collect the data.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA