India pushed draft data protection with dynamism: UK Information Commissioner

The UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham Wednesday said that it was worthy to note that India displayed keenness to come out with draft rules for data protection.

“The dynamism at which India pushed draft data protection rules is good,” she said, adding that India has secured an observer status at the global privacy forum.

Denham was speaking at the India-UK Future Tech Festival in New Delhi.

In October this year, the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) at Brussels accredited the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as an observer till April 2019.

Data is an asset of the fourth industrial revolution, according to Denham.

India has recently unveiled a draft bill, called the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, prepared by a high-level expert committee headed by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna.

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government, after the inter-ministerial consultation, is expected to notify the new data privacy guidelines that in the current form involves the collection, storage, and processing of personal data as well as penalties, compensation, and enforcement.

In July this year, India’s telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) too released its recommendations on data privacy, security and ownership owing to the growing digital landscape and device ecosystem in the telecom space.

“In the digital era, we all are different and at outcome level, the different paths lead to the same destination,” she said, adding that the convergence has an economic impact.

With the advent of GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation, the official said, organisations were increasingly directing services to the UK.

The UK is aggressively working on data protection framework for blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Denham added.

“Partnership with India on technology is going to be at the heart and needs to build on technology economy,” Director-General for Digital and Media Policy, UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, Matthew Gould said.

The two countries, according to Gould, would be setting up technology hub in Delhi in association with software group National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

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