Trade talks: DPDP Act, IT rules dominate

Deputy US Trade Representative (USTR) Rick Switzer-led American team, which was in New Delhi this week for trade talks, discussed with its Indian counterparts the executive rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and the Information Technology Rules of 2021, sources told Business Standard.

- SHREYA NANDI & AASHISH ARYAN

During the meetings held on December 10-11 with Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and India's chief negotiator Darpan Jain, Washington flagged specific provisions in the DPDP rules and IT Rules that it considers non-tariff barriers for American companies.

One of these is the data localisation norms prescribed under the DPDP executive rules, which allow cross-border data transfers but says a government-appointed committee can, at any time, decide if particular types of data will no longer be allowed to be transferred or processed outside India.

Another issue raised relates to the strict compliance norms for social media and internet intermediaries under the IT Rules, 2021.