Today, the Cabinet is likely to hear the data protection bill. The draft data protection Bill is anticipated to be discussed by the Union Cabinet today (Wednesday), and after Cabinet approval, the legislation is anticipated to be introduced in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
After being initially launched in November of last year, a draft of the Bill underwent many rounds of public input. A second draft was prepared based on the suggestions made during the consultations, and it passed several rounds of inter-ministerial deliberations.
A senior government official who requested anonymity said, “The Cabinet is anticipated to take up the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 on Wednesday. Once it gets the approval, the Bill will be tabled in the upcoming Parliament session.”
The Digital India Bill, which is the proposed replacement for the Information technological Act of 2000, the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, and a policy for non-personal data governance are all part of an overall framework of technological rules that the Centre is constructing. The Bill is one of its main pillars.
The government withdrew an earlier draft from Parliament last August after nearly four years of work, during which it underwent multiple revisions, was reviewed by a Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP), and encountered opposition from a variety of stakeholders, including tech companies and privacy activists. This led to the release of the new draught.
The Indian Express previously stated that the proposed new rule might allow global data flows by default to all jurisdictions except than a designated negative list of nations where such transfers would be blocked, a move that could further liberalise the conditions for data transmission.
According to the draft that was made available for public comment, the Centre would inform any nations or territories to whom the personal data of Indian people may be transferred. According to sources, this is likely to be changed such that the Bill permits cross-border data flows to all regions where transfers would be limited and on a formal “blacklist” of nations.
