Data protection Bill likely to come up before Cabinet today
A draft of the Bill was first floated last November, following which it underwent a few rounds of public consultation
The draft data protection Bill is expected to come up before the Union Cabinet today (Wednesday), with the legislation expected to be tabled in the Monsoon session of Parliament after Cabinet approval, The Indian Express has learnt.
A draft of the Bill was first floated last November, following which it underwent a few rounds of public consultation. Based on the inputs received during the consultations, a second draft was readied which then underwent some rounds of inter-ministerial discussions.
The Bill is a key pillar of an overarching framework of technology regulations the Centre is building which also includes the Digital India Bill the proposed successor to the Information Technology Act, 2000; Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022; and a policy for non-personal data governance.
The fresh draft was released after the government withdrew an earlier version from Parliament last August after nearly four years of being in the works, where it went through multiple iterations including a review by a Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP), and faced pushback from a range of stakeholders including tech companies and privacy activists.
The draft which was released for public consultation said that the Centre will notify countries or territories where personal data of Indian citizens can be transferred. Sources said this is likely to be amended with the Bill allowing cross-border data flows to all geographies with an official blacklist — of countries where transfers would be restricted.
