INDIA ON TRACK TO BECOME DIGITAL-FIRST ECONOMY

Now is the crucial time for both government and enterprises to understand how to deal with data privacy and not be vulnerable to future threats and attacks, says Sakshi Grover, Research Manager, IDC India

- Aanchal Ghatak

Describe the Data Privacy regulations in India. How will this standard provide a framework to establish, implement, maintain, and update data privacy management practices?

Data privacy regulations in India were modulated by the India's Information Technology Act, 2000 (also named as IT Act) and consequently by the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP Bill). In Q2, 2022 it was cited that the government of India is now in the process of replacing the IT Act and regulations under PDP Bill, considering that they are outdated and does not play its part in the best interests of Indian enterprises and citizen's data. This was exemplified in July 2022 when Razorpay had to comply and provide customer's data in a police investigation against Alt News. Data privacy regulations in India have undergone tremendous alterations especially with 2021's data protection bill, however these dynamic times, calls for dynamic measures and India certainly is on its journey to revising the laws as much as possible, considering it is now one of largest data-centric economies.

The 2021 data protection bill introduced data mirroring and data localisation which raised more questions than answers for enterprises who had to work on revising their data and control flow within their legacy software architectures to comply with the regulations. Keeping everything in mind, India is working on generating the new National Data Governance Framework and Policy, and as per industry corporates and experts, it must cater to the below enlisted elements, for a comprehensive protection coverage: