Data protection rules to be released for consultation soon: IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Under the DPDP law, Data Protection Board will function as“digital office” to deal with issues related to personal data breaches in “digital by design” manner.
New Delhi: The ministry of electronics and information technology will release the rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 for consultation soon, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday and added that the goal to bring in large-scale manufacturing of electronics, components, and semiconductor remains unchanged.
The DPDP Act, the long-awaited data protection law, was given a presidential assent on August 12 last year, but it is yet to be implemented partly because the corresponding rules haven’t been notified.
 

“Drafting of DPDP Rules is in very advanced stage. We will start the industry consultation now... Whatever extensive consultations will be required; we will do those. We won’t rush through. We will prefer as consultative a process as we can, like you saw in the Telecom Bill and the DPDP Act,” Vaishnaw, who reassumed the office of IT ministry four days ago, said.

The DPDP Rules are a top priority, he said. “AI [artificial intelligence] is also a very important item. But first, we have to make sure that DPDP in its digital form comes into shape,” he added.

The minister noted that the entire implementation process will be digital by design. Under the DPDP law, a Data Protection Board will function as a “digital office” to deal with issues related to personal data breaches in a “digital by design” manner. Similarly, an appellate tribunal, to which complaints can be escalated if they are not satisfactorily resolved by the Board, will also be a “digital office”.

The digital platform for the Data Protection Board is being built parallelly within MeitY, Vaishnaw said, adding it will be created by National Information Centre and/or Digital India Corporation.

“In parallel, we are working on creating the digital by design platform so that the implementation can be done in a digital form, which is a part of the Act. … It will be born digital. That exercise is also going on in parallel.”

He, however, refused to share any timelines, but said the draft rules have made “good progress”.

“I reviewed it after four months and I was quite happy with the draft that was shown to me,” the minister said, adding lots of changes would be made to the draft rules based on inputs from the industry, stakeholders, lawyers, consultants, user groups, Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and government organisations. “We will take all views.”

Vaishnaw has had at least one meeting within MeitY on DPDP rules since reassuming office on June 11. The then minister of state, MeitY, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, had held a consultation with the industry on the draft rules in December 2023.

Stressing that DPDP rules are the priority right now, Vaishnaw said the overall aim of the government to create a new digital regulatory framework “remains intact”. “Our thought process of creating a new digital regulatory framework remains intact. The horizontals — which are the Telecom Act, the DPDP Act, the Digital India Act 3 remain intact,” he said.

“Obviously, so many things have happened in the recent past. For example, we have seen the destructive power of AI and deepfakes. … Should we recalibrate our strategy, that is a question we need to answer. But yes, we need to definitely have a good legal structure where our society and democracy can be protected from these attacks,” the minister said.

The IndiaAI Mission, which was approved by the Cabinet in March with an outlay of ?10,371.92 crore, remains on track, he said, adding officials continued to work on it during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. “I will be reviewing it next week and then I will be able to give you more details,” he said.