New Delhi: Days after Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the parliamentary panel has given a “big thumbs up” to the draft Data Protection Bill, National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) issued a clarification saying that the minister did not say the Bill has been “approved”.
Speaking at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum Thursday, IT minister Vaishnaw had reportedly 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 (data protection), before the bill is taken to the Parliament, have in advance examined it, and then given a big thumbs up”.
The central government had published the draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022, in November last year.
Issuing a clarification on the matter Friday, Nasscom — the apex body for technology industry — said that Vaishnaw has “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”.
It added that the minister “did not state that the Bill has been ‘approved’ by the committee”.
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The controversy, the issues
Soon after Vaishnaw’s statement, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, also a member of the parliamentary committee, took to Twitter to refute it and termed it as “untrue”.
Karti wrote: “The draft Bill was released for public consultation in Nov 2022. In Dec, during a discussion on citizens’ privacy and data security, the committee also held a preliminary discussion on the draft Bill. Members raised a number of issues with the draft… The DPDP Bill has not been formally sent to the Committee & hence a “big thumbs up” claimed by Ashwini Vaishnaw is untrue.”
Sources within the committee have confirmed to ThePrint that a discussion on their issues with the present draft is “long-pending” and that the government is “acting in haste”.
Although experts had, largely, agreed that the initiation of such a policy framework is necessary, there were concerns over the present draft form of the Bill.
Tech policy experts believe that there is a need for specificity on the powers that the government will exercise on the personal data of citizens, compensation for individual data breaches and the recognition of 18 years (upper limit) as an age gate for online presence.
But Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar maintained that this bill will protect citizens including children and that the ministry will ensure there is “consensus”.
Also Read: Age clause in data protection bill — excessive control or keeping kids safe?
What next?
Kazim Rizvi, founder of the tech policy think tank The Dialogue, told ThePrint that there will be a cabinet approval before the Bill reaches the Parliament.
“The [draft] Digital Data Protection Bill 2022 was put forth for consultation in November 2022, and the next step is the introduction of the Bill in Parliament after the cabinet’s approval. We hope and expect that the Bill will be tabled in the Parliament during the monsoon session,” he said.
After the Bill gets tabled for debate it will then be referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology.
“Once the Bill gets tabled in the Parliament, it may get referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology or to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, similar to the case of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019. In this scenario, the committee will deliberate on this Bill and produce a report to the Parliament which will be considered by the ministry for fine-tuning the bill. Besides, it is also up to the ministry whether to take up the recommendations provided by the committee,” he further added.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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