Assessing India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Bill

Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service. This week, Indian legislators approved a data protection law that will govern the processing of data in the country. The bill creates a data protection board and gives the government new powers, including to request information from companies and to issue orders to block content. While there is still work to do to determine how the law will be administered, it joins a range of new tech policy laws and regulations enacted against a backdrop of the increasing centralization of power in India’s government. To discuss the bill, I’m joined by Aditi Agarwal, an independent technology journalist based in New Delhi; Kamesh Shekar, a tech policy expert who leads the privacy and data governance vertical at The Dialogue, a think tank based in Delhi; and Prateek Waghre, the Policy Director at the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights advocacy organization based in India. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the discussion. Justin Hendrix: I am so pleased to have the three of you on this podcast to talk about developments in India around its Data Protection Bill. I have had the opportunity myself to visit India only twice in my life. One of those times was this year, where I did have the opportunity to meet both Prateek and Aditi in person. Kamesh, I sadly missed you on this trip, but hopefully next time I’ll have the opportunity. But, Aditi, I want to start with you as…Assessing India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Bill