30th June 2019
Dear Reader,
We are changing the format a bit for this edition, choosing to focus on a specific theme — Data. The articles covering this theme are all below in a narrative, and interesting news that does not fit in with the theme can be found at the end under ‘In Other News’. We might rejig the format to this once in a while if we think one theme has dominated the news cycle for the week. From next week, however, we will be back to the previous format.
The most important policy development in Indian tech will be the introduction of the Personal Data Protection Bill in the Parliament sometime over the next few weeks. Karishma Mehrotra, in The Indian Express, provides an excellent overview of the data protection debate in India and its place within the global debates on this issue. Saikat Datta provides a contextual background for the Data Protection Bill and speaks to a number of stakeholders about the potential impact of the Bill. There is no doubt that this Bill seeks to be the overarching data protection and governance legislation in the country, evidenced by the recent decision of the Ministry of Commerce to remove data storage rules from the ambit of the e-commerce policy. The efficacy of the Bill in the face of the Government’s push towards increased data-driven governance remains to be seen. In The Economic Times, Anandita Singh Mankotia reports on the proposal to establish a National Data Governance Centre to ‘hold all public data’, and establish guidelines for access. There is also the contentious issue of data being used for political purposes and with the lines between party and government blurring, Nikhil Pahwa issues a much-needed call for the restriction of political use of data.
The importance of the Bill is amplified by the focus on data localization. The Reserve Bank of India was the first regulatory body to set down concrete sectoral rules on data localization, and recently released FAQs clarifying what data should be stored locally and what need not be. Central to the focus on data localization is the idea of ‘data sovereignty’. This excellent (albeit a little old) Centre for Internet and Society blog unpacks the policy moves towards data localization and that elusive state of data sovereignty.
The final aspect of the data issue in India is the international context. In the backdrop of the just-concluded G20 summit, Samm Sacks and Justin Sherman lay out the stakes in what they call ‘the global data war’, and importance of India and China. At the summit, the Indian government has refused to sign a declaration on the free flow of data across the border. And to top up an important week, the head of Huawei India, in a bizarre statement, has said that his company is ready to sign a ‘no-backdoor pact’ with the Indian government. Whatever that means.
Do check us out on Twitter and Medium and let us know what you thought of this week’s collection. Any feedback will only help us get better. If you would like to have our newsletter sent straight to your inbox once a week, please click on the box below.
In Other News…
In a brilliant Twitter thread, Hemant Mohapatra outlines why, outside the US, world-beating enterprise startups will come from India.
The government is also planning on storing citizens’ DNA data, and the DNA Regulation Bill is set to be re-introduced in the Parliament.
And finally, the Madras High Court has allowed the Internet Freedom Foundation to intervene in a ridiculous plea to link Aadhaar with social media accounts.
