Bengaluru: India will soon roll out a data protection framework that will strike the right balance between protecting private data and preserving the enabling business environment, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, and electronics and IT.
Speaking at the seventh edition of the ET Startup Awards on Saturday, the minister sought to assure the community that policymakers will ensure the rules don't become roadblocks.
“Over the coming months, you will have a data governance framework being rolled out,” he said. “You will see all elements required to encourage, expand entrepreneurship, with public consultation and stakeholder meetings... as well as elements required to secure the citizen's right to privacy.”
The industry has flagged several concerns over provisions in the Personal Data Protection Bill, which has been in the making for nearly five years. They fear that clauses such as inclusion of non-personal data, treating social media as publishers, and the structure of the data protection bill and high compliance costs, could hurt the country’s fledgling technology and startup ecosystem, which saw a record 40 unicorns, companies valued over $1 billion, being created last year.
Queried about how India would strike the balance between privacy and an enabling business environment, the minister said policymaking on data protection is “somewhere in between" having no protection for the privacy of the individual and having an “absolutist” outlook on privacy.
Ajoint parliamentary committee that has been reviewing the Personal Data Protection Bill submitted its recommendations in December. The minister said the government was clear that it would not lay down laws that mar the business environment.
“We want to be very clear that every policy step we make adds to the momentum and does not create any ambiguity,” he said.
Chandrasekhar said India will definitely lead the charge on capitalising on the business opportunity emerging from next-generation technologies such Web 3.0 and the Metaverse. Newer opportunities also extend into electronics, deep tech and quantum computing among others.
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