India Inc hunts for Data Protection Officers to align with regulation

With the advent of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some of the companies in India have already appointed DPOs to manage data protection.

India has witnessed a substantial 21 percent growth in the availability of Data Protection Officers (DPOs) over the past two years, while the job demand for this role has concurrently surged by 32 percent, according to data put together for Moneycontrol by job portal foundit.

Currently, information technology or IT industry has most demand for DPOs, followed by banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and business process outsourcing (BPO).

According to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, or DPDP Act 2023, a DPO is tasked with overseeing data protection activities and ensuring compliance.

Moneycontrol had earlier reported how companies are approaching private law firms to overhaul and restructure their contracts to make them compliant with the new law.

“A DPO’s duties shall include ensuring that the rights of every data principal are implemented and that the organisation has robust data security measures in place, with the DPO also being responsible to the board of directors (or such similar governing body),” said Nakul Batra, Partner, DSK Legal.

While the DPDP Act does not enlist the necessary qualifications of a DPO, every DPO shall likely need to exhibit expertise in data protection law and practices.

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Speaking on the demand, Sekhar Garisa, CEO of foundit, said corporates have recognised the necessity of hiring a DPO to safeguard data and ensure alignment with various data protection regulations.

“This realisation underscores the growing importance of data protection and privacy in today's business landscape,” he said.

Changing landscape

Industry experts say the concept of DPOs is not completely new in India. However, these posts were fielded by IT experts in information security.

“It is time that the roles are filled by experts in law with a good understanding of information security too,” said Viswanath PS, MD and CEO of staffing firm Randstad India.

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Randstad has observed 20,000-25,000 active jobs in data protection across India, and it expects this number to grow significantly over the next couple of years. Moreover, the role of DPOs has evolved beyond traditional IT boundaries, with individuals from various functional areas like Legal, Security, Risk, and Compliance stepping into these roles, which will further expand the scope and opportunities in data protection and privacy-related job profiles.

“Also, with the growth of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and knowledge processing outsourcing (KPO) firms in India, the demand for DPOs will further surge,” PS said.