Data protection bill: Ashwini Vaishnaw has done a great job, says Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani

Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani

Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani hailed India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) bill, stating that it has all the elements needed for data empowerment and will create a massive explosion of credit to buyers and sellers.

"Mr Vaishnaw (IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw) has done a great job in getting the bill together. It's very strong and it is a principle-oriented bill. And it was long overdue. We now must build on that- regulation and data protection board has to come. And I am particularly pleased that it has all things required for data empowerment," Nilekani told Moneycontrol.

Nilekani further said the data privacy bill provides a legal infrastructure that will lead to a massive explosion of credit for buyers and sellers. "There's going to be a lot of consumer credit in a very organised way, coming to buyers," he said.

Nilekani is one of India's influential technocrats, having played a pivotal role in scaling some of the country's biggest digital public rails, from Aadhaar to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to FASTag to the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN).

His comments come a day after the data protection bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha, with a voice vote. Earlier on August 7, the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha. It will become law after it receives President Draupadi Murmu's assent. The law has been sought by various sections of society ever since the Supreme Court deemed the Right to Privacy as fundamental – with reasonable restrictions – in 2016.

Also read | Explained: What the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill means for you

A Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill was introduced in 2018 and tabled in 2019, after which it was referred to a joint parliamentary committee. The panel studied the bill for two years and presented its report and a modified PDP Bill in December 2021.

But in 2022, the government withdrew the PDP Bill, citing compliance-related reasons and came out with the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill after a few months. The Cabinet approved the bill in July, clearing its way to be tabled in the ongoing monsoon session.