The Supreme Court of India has agreed to examine petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, focusing on concerns about its impact on the Right to Information Act.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promoting India as a global hub for digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence, highlighting the government's incentives for data center investments and inviting the world's data to reside in India.
'We do have some concerns with the timeline being shortened from 18 to 12 months.'
The court is hearing appeals against a CCI order imposing a penalty on Meta and WhatsApp.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday announced plans to invest $17.5 billion in India to help build infrastructure and sovereign capabilities for the country's AI-first future, marking the third major AI-driven investment in the country in the past two months. Microsoft said that the $17.5 billion (around Rs 1.58 lakh crore) investment builds on the $3 billion (around Rs 26,955 crore) funding announced earlier this year, which the company is on track to spend by the end of CY (calendar year) 2026.
Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) law aims to protect the privacy of Indian citizens while proposing a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect digital data of individuals.
The new rules allow for a staggered implementation road map, giving companies, data fiduciaries, data principals, and other stakeholders up to 18 months to comply with the administrative guidelines under the DPDP Act.
'Digital arrests are the cutting edge of the problem and the most challenging part of the ecosystem right now.'
'We are in touch with industry to further compress the timelines.'
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved Rs 11,718 crore for conducting the Census of India, 2027, which would include the caste enumeration for the first time.
The DPDP rules, which have come into effect, require companies to implement a data protection and consent management system by November 2026.
'The impact will be minimal and it will only increase compliance cost on consent, data flows, localisation timelines, internal audits, data mapping, and new tooling.'
Sarvam's LLM will have more than 17 trillion tokens with 17 to 20 per cent coming from Indian data
'Companies will need to revisit compensation structures, contracts, staffing models, and human resources system.'
Companies, particularly those that are notified as Significant Data Fiduciaries, will have to make extensive investments in data mapping, process modification, consent management tools, tools to enable Data Principal Rights, and establish a well-structured Data Privacy Officer organisation.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Bill will be introduced in Parliament during the current Winter Session.
"All they have done in their entire report is privacy regulation," counsel appearing for WhatsApp told the appellate tribunal.
A new law that defines how companies should process users' data came into force with the President giving assent to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act passed by Parliament in the just-concluded monsoon session. The law arms individuals with greater control over their data while allowing companies to transfer users' data abroad for processing, except to nations and territories restricted by the Centre through notification. It also gives the government power to seek information from firms and issue directions to block content.
'By leveraging user data from WhatsApp, Meta can enhance its technology.' 'It (user data) is collected by me, it's my personal property. Shall I give it to my competitors?'
'One has to be very mindful because it will be applicable for big tech platforms and even for banks and insurers, whose business is completely different.'
...on par with oil, power, and defence, and to restrict its storage under foreign control.
DPDP Act (2023) gives individuals the right to decide how their personal data is collected and used. For many businesses, this means reworking longstanding data practices, notes Ravi Duvvuru.
The US on Thursday raised concerns over India's Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill and draft non-personal data governance framework, claiming these could potentially threaten innovation and economic growth. In its latest 'Special 301' Report, the US Trade Representative (USTR) kept India on the priority watch list, maintaining the country remains one of the world's most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of intellectual property (IP). In December 2021, a joint parliamentary committee released a report recommending changes to the PDP Bill, 2019, that could undermine important IP protections in India.
The final report was to be submitted in March but it got an extension till the second week of the monsoon session that began September 14.
'By extending the definition of 'personal' to include institutions and not just individuals, the State has equipped itself with a tool to block access to most kinds of information.'
The draft rules have been issued after Parliament approved the Digital Data Protection Bill 2023 about 14 months back.
The "construct of the DPDP Act" cannot be changed at this stage, though there may be some minor tweaks in the language of the Rules and formats in certain legitimate cases.
The biggest fear many of the e-commerce firms have is the possible requirement to change business models overnight, which would drastically increase costs as well as disrupt businesses.
The US Trade Representative noted that India's average applied tariff rate stood at 17% per cent, the highest of any major world economy.
The draft digital personal data protection (DPDP) rules, which require banks to obtain explicit consent from their customers before using their data for purposes beyond the original intent, although is being followed in spirit, leaves no room for regulatory arbitrage, experts said. They said that the potential business impact is difficult to assess at this stage, but the formalisation of these rules will mean banks now need to establish clear data processing agreements with third-party entities to ensure compliance.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has granted approval to Paytm to onboard new UPI users, subject to the adherence to all procedural guidelines and circulars, according to the company. The move is expected to come as a relief to Paytm, which had suffered a blow following the Reserve Bank of India's restrictions earlier this year on associate company Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) in onboarding new UPI users on the Paytm app. In March, the NPCI gave approval to Paytm to participate in UPI as a Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP).
Many who track the ministry and the technology sector closely believe that the space won't see much impact on the policymaking side, but the gestation time for regulations might get long, as now there could be a wider consensus-building exercise on policy matters under a coalition government.
Entities may be given about a year to tune their systems to comply with norms of Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of consultation with the industry, Chandrasekhar said the Data Protection Board and guidelines for the eight rules, including consent management, will be put in place within a month. "Industry wants some more time for age-gating, different timelines for transition for different data fiduciaries.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi has said that 31 bills will be taken up in the monsoon session. Among these include the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023.
Whether Rajeev Chandrasekhar wins or not, Thiruvananthapuram will likely never see such an interesting contest again.
The government on Thursday tabled the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in the Lok Sabha with an aim to protect the privacy of Indian citizens, while proposing a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect digital data of individuals.
The size of Reserve Bank's balance sheet increased by 11.08 per cent to Rs 70.47 lakh crore as on March 2024, leading to the highest-ever dividend payout to the government, according to the central bank's annual report. In actual terms, the increase was Rs 7,02,946.97 crore over Rs 63.45 lakh crore as on March 2023.
The government asked digital platforms to provide technical and business process solutions to prevent and weed out misinformation that can potentially harm society and democracy, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.
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