Changes made in wording of ‘deemed consent’, few clauses in personal data protection bill: Chandrasekhar

Chandrasekhar was talking on the sidelines of the Digital India Dialogues session in Bengaluru.

Certain changes in the wording of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill have been made, especially in clauses such as deemed consent, cross-border data transfer and so on, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Rajeev Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol in an interview on July 6. However, the "architecture of the bill" has not changed, he added.

Chandrasekhar was talking on the sidelines of the Digital India Dialogues session in Bengaluru, focusing on the revised production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware.

On July 5, the Union Cabinet approved the DPDP Bill after it underwent extensive rounds of consultation. This clears the way for the bill to be tabled in the Parliament in the upcoming Monsoon Session.

Clause 7 of the DPDP Bill has introduced the concept of "deemed consent" for processing personal data for specific purposes, such as "public interest". This provision has been mentioned in consultations sent by industry bodies representing Big Tech companies such as Google, Twitter, Apple and so on, requesting certain changes to it.

"There is no material change in the bill from what was there before. There are some things that you've already read about in terms of blacklisting for cross border, it is now whitelisting... There were some questions of guardrails on deemed consent. There are some changes in the wording of these provisions," Chandrasekhar said.

Moneycontrol asked Chandrasekhar whether the bill can be referred to committees like Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology after it gets tabled in the Parliament.

"I don't think there is a need for it. (But if) the standing committee or someone wants to take a look at it, the government is fine with it. Our Prime Minister's view on this type of legislation is that it should be as widely consulted as possible... Now, if the Parliament decides that they want to sit down and think about this for a lot longer, that's fine," he added.

It is important to remember that the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill 2019 (the predecessor of the DPDP Bill 2022), was referred to a joint parliamentary committee that studied the bill for two years.

Focus on $300 billion electronics manufacturing goal

The Digital India Dialogues brought together stakeholders from the tech industry, such as experts, industry representatives and startups. Chandrasekhar addressed their queries on improving the ecosystem.

The discussions were focused on fostering ecosystem development while encouraging enterprises and startups to expand their presence in the country.

During the interview, when asked whether there is any effort by the government to become a part of the electronics supply chain (advanced avionics) of aeroplanes, the minister said that he expects companies like Honeywell and Garmin to start developing such advanced electronics in the country.

"I am hopeful that companies like Honeywell and Garmin will do avionics in India. They all have their back office capability centers here and they should also step up and start doing R&D here. The next generation of avionics should come from India... And we have the capability. I think a lot of this kind of innovation will come from startups," he said.

In May, the government approved the PLI 2.0 scheme for IT hardware with an outlay of Rs 17,000 crore, doubling the budget from the 2021 scheme. The scheme aims to encourage domestic manufacturing, attract investments, and promote the localisation of IT hardware components and sub-assemblies. It covers laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, servers, and ultra-small form factor devices.

"The government is working closely with startups, industry and academia to create a rapidly expanding server & IT hardware manufacturing ecosystem in India. Our ambitions are clear — a $300 billion electronics industry and a $1 trillion digital economy by 2026," said Chandrasekhar.

The scheme is set to run for six years and is projected to generate a significant increase in production worth Rs 3.35 lakh crore, with an expected investment of Rs 2,430 crore. It is also likely to create approximately 75,000 new direct job opportunities.

Since 2014, the electronics manufacturing industry in India has achieved a consistent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 percent. Starting from around $16 billion the production has now surpassed the significant benchmark of $105 billion.