Big relief for foreign firms! Govt panel says no need to mirror personal data in India

In a major concession to overseas players, a high-level government panel has done way with the need for foreign firms to store a copy of all personal data within India. In a dilution of the recommendations of the Justice Srikrishna committee, firms with access to such data can now store and process them abroad. However, all critical personal data must still be stored and processed in the country.

The Srikrishna panel had recommended that while personal data can be processed and stored abroad, a copy needs to be stored here. The concession could be the result of reservations expressed by several US and Europe-based companies. However, at a recent meeting on the Srikrishna panel report, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), department of telecommunications, ministry of information technology and electronics, NITI Aayog and department of promotion of industry and internal trade, decided to hold further discussions with all stakeholders to decide what would constitute critical personal data.