NEW DELHI: IT and electronics minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday that govt will consult the tech industry before stipulating any restrictions on transfer of certain classes of personal data outside India, adding that external experts will also be engaged in the process to draw up a list of prohibited sectors.
Vaishnaw was speaking after the IT ministry introduced draft rules governing the Digital
Personal Data Protection
(DPDP) law that had been adopted in 2023. The rules suggest putting restrictions on transfer of certain classes of “personal data” outside the country in line with recommendations that will be made by a committee formed especially for this purpose by govt.
The minister said the govt wants to adopt a consultative approach by engaging representatives from the industry as well as experts, while drawing up the list, if the draft rules do become a reality. “It will go as per sectoral requirements, or else be thoroughly examined and discussed with stakeholders. We also aim to engage with sector experts.”
The curbs on transfer of certain classes of personal data is likely to be an irritant for top social media and internet companies, such as Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Flipkart, which may oppose the measure in their filings and comments made to the ministry, which is taking feedback till Feb 18. The issue stems from a clause in the draft rules which says, “A significant data fiduciary shall undertake measures to ensure that personal data specified by the central govt on the basis of recommendations of a committee constituted by it is processed subject to the restriction that the personal data and the traffic data pertaining to its flow is not transferred outside the territory of India.” On the proposal of mandating parental consent before children (or those below 18) are allowed to join social media, the minister said the idea is to build safeguards for a safer internet.
