Union minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said there is no need for any doubts or questions with regard to the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, which is in the works, to be presented to the Parliament.
“After extensive public consultations, it’s (Digital Personal Data Protection Bill) being readied for government and Parliament approval soon,” Chandrasekhar tweeted.
The comments from the minister come after Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said that the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT raised concerns around excessive centralisation of power with the government, lack of independence of Digital Protection Board, and blanket exemptions to some data fiduciaries.
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Chidambaram, who is also a committee member, added that he also raised questions regarding lack of attention to protection of children’s data and unchecked exemptions to the government.
Comments from Chidambaram came after communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said, “I would like to share some good news that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communications, which is the committee which deals with this subject, before the Bill is taken to the Parliament, have in advance examined it, and then given a big thumbs up”. Vaishnaw was speaking at the Nasscom Technology Leadership Forum (NTLF) 2023.
However, Nasscom on Friday clarified that Vaishnaw did not say that the panel had approved the Bill. “We would like to clarify that minister Vaishnaw did not state that the Bill has been ‘approved’ by the committee. The tech industry urged minister Vaishnaw to fast-track implementation of the Digital Data Protection Bill as this is key for building India as a trusted nation,” Nasscom said.
“Minister Vaishnaw reassured the industry that this is high priority and all steps are being taken to table the Bill in Parliament at the earliest, including reviews and discussions with the Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information Technology,” Nasscom added.
As per the Parliament proceedings, a Bill once introduced in the Parliament can be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
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The government had released the draft of the new Data Protection Bill in November last year, after withdrawing it in August. The revamped version of the Bill details the rights and duties of the citizen for personal data protection and the provisions to use collected data lawfully by the data fiduciary such as a company dealing with the individual data. For data breaches, the quantum of maximum penalty is now proposed at `500 crore, compared to older version of the Bill which proposed to levy penalties of 2-4% of total worldwide turnover of the firms concerned.
The government aims to present the Bill in Parliament during the ongoing Budget session.
