Parliament approves data protection bill

Vaishnaw said Centre has started work on the implementation of the bill

- Gulveen Aulakh

Parliament on Wednesday passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDP), heralding what will become the country's first law on protecting personal data. Communications and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the bill has been made technology-agnostic so that data concepts that are still evolving can be included without requiring amendments.

The minister said the government had already started work on the implementation of the bill, and a roll-out will be seen very soon. He added that fiduciaries will be consulted for the roll-out, which will be done swiftly but with extreme caution.

"This is changing the entire digital economy, so we will take every step with proper checks, proper balance, and proper verification. We must make it a robust mechanism," the minister said. Some officials said it might take 6-10 months, as an outer limit, to implement the law.