India First

Data Protection Framework – India In July 2017 the Government of India formed a committee of experts to draft the country’s first Data Protection Framework. This committee was headed by Justice BN Srikrishna. Among its members were Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecom, Ajay Bhushan CEO, Unique Identification Authority of India, Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator and Arghya Sengupta, Research Director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The last is a   think tank which was instrumental in drafting of the Aadhaar Act as well as the Bankruptcy Code.  According to the government order, the terms of reference of the committee include, "To make specific suggestions for consideration of the Central Government on principles to be considered for data protection in India and suggest a draft data protection bill". The office memorandum also said that "The Government of India is cognizant of the growing importance of data protection in India. The need...

Very well-balanced argument in favour of the digital landscape the Union govt is constructing as an enabler for both social and economic reform. Digital platforms and tools on a nation-wide scale will bring corruption and inefficiency to very low levels, and will save govts HUGE amounts of money, making it available for a whole lot of avenues where India desperately needs to invest. Along with the investment in Digital India, Aadhaar, and other revolutionary digital enablers, the govt needs to strengthen laws to ensure information sharing happens for legitimate purposes only and it's illegal to sell personal information. http://www.asianage.com/opinion/oped/170317/data-privacy-needs-much-better-safeguards.html