India’s data protection regime is still in its nascent stage of evolution, where the proposed changes in the Data Protection Bill, 2021 (“2021 Bill”) are yet to materialize. The 2021 Bill reflects an attempt to regulate the most nuanced aspects of data protection by following an inclusive approach – that is, regulation of personal and non-personal data through a single legislation.
The evolution of specific data protection regime in India can be traced back to the inclusion of right to privacy within the ambit of fundamental rights by the Supreme Court in the celebrated case of Justice K.S Puttaswamy v. Union of India, which recognized the robust data protection regime of the European Union, and expedited the drafting of Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (“2019 Bill”). To augment the efficacy of the 2019 Bill, the Joint Parliamentary Committee (“JPC”) amended its regulatory design and proposed the 2021 Bill.
Please click here to read the full article by Gaurav G Arora, published in ET Insights.
Gaurav’s practice covers mergers & acquisitions, private equity, corporate structuring and restructuring, and general corporate commercial matters (including data privacy and white-collar crime investigations).