Protecting Privacy: Can we have one data policy for India?

The Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data (NPD) recently released a revised report on the Draft Non-Personal Data Framework. The report attempts to provide a data policy blueprint for India, a country which “can arguably be projected as being one of the top consumer markets, and by extension data markets in the world”. Some of the underlying objectives behind regulating non-personal data is to tap into data as an economic asset, incentivise start-ups by correcting the imbalance established by a few dominant players and use data for public good and economic benefits of citizens while protecting collective community interests over such data as opposed to the personal data protection regime built in the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill that seeks to ensure primacy to the individual and not the community over his personal data.