Breaking: E-commerce policy will be coming soon, Govt tells industry

• Meanwhile, GST Council sticks to 28% levy on real-money games despite pushback

One important thing: Foxconn to invest Rs 5,000 crore in Karnataka; set up two manufacturing plants

In today’s newsletter:

• Top 5 changes expected in data protection bill
• PayU plans India IPO, eyes $6B valuation
• Elon Musk's X challenges India's blocking orders

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? You can sign up for Tech3 here

It has been a long wait for industry, civil society, privacy watchdogs and everyone else as the government slowly inched towards the aim of establishing a data protection legislation for India over the last couple of years. 

On August 3, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw will table the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill in the Lok Sabha.

While we cannot predict what will happen after the bill is tabled, we can provide some information about what this version of the bill may contain and how it may differ from the draft released in 2022. 

• Deemed consent: The provision of deemed consent, which was introduced in the DPDP Bill 2022, has been replaced with processing of data for  “certain legitimate uses” 
  
  
• Blocking powers: The proposed data regulator under the DPDP bill, the Data Protection Board (DPB), may be empowered to block content

• No more “white list”: Instead of listing countries where data transfer will be allowed, the new bill may have a list of countries where data transfer will be restricted 
  
  
• Appellate tribunal: As we reported earlier, the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) may be established as the appellate body over the Data Protection Board
  
  
• More information: The fresh draft of the bill may empower the Central government to call for information from any data fiduciary or DPB for “purposes of the Act”

The introduction of the bill comes after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communications tabled a report endorsing the DPDP bill and calling for its speedy enactment into law.

• This was despite Minister of State for MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar stating that the bill had not been referred to a committee

Find out more

Why would a company hire a CFO who had previously taken a startup public? It should be a dead giveaway! No points for guessing.

The cat is finally out of the bag! When PayU hired former Nykaa CFO Arvind Agarwal late last year, it gave us a slight hint that the company is looking to make use of his skills to list in India. 

• It is looking to list in India sometime next year

Agarwal had taken Nykaa public during his time there, and had also overseen the merger of telecom giants Vodafone and Idea.

PayU is aiming for an impressive valuation of $6-6.5 billion, which is close to the current trading value of mobile payments firm Paytm.

• Paytm boasts of a high-growth credit business along with a range of payement processing services
  
  
• It also has a substantial merchant base of 35 million, with 8 million using its payment devices, and around 90 million active monthly users

In comparison, PayU’s revenue is less than one-third of Paytm’s. However, PayU’s strength lies in being a profitable business with potentially more loyal enterprise customers.

Prosus, the tech investment firm that owns PayU, has been streamlining its operations by divesting non-core assets and conserving cash.

• Yesterday it sold PayU Global Payments Organisation to Rapyd for $610 million
  
  
• Prosus recently also sold Olx Auto's India division to CarTrade

Find out more

Elon Musk might be the world's richest man, with a net worth of over $230 billion. But, he does not want to pay a Rs 50 lakh fine.

X, formerly Twitter, has appealed against the Karnataka High Court's decision to impose a penalty on the social media company for not blocking some accounts on the platform.

• This marks X’s first confrontation with the Indian government since Musk took ownership of the micro-blogging platform

• Musk has previously said that India's social media rules are "quite strict" and that violating them could result in X's employees being arrested

X is also contesting the court's decision to uphold the blocking of 29 accounts and its adjudication that 33 URLs fell within the ambit of Section 69A of the IT Act.

The case is being tracked by civil society and industry, as blocking orders have been seen as a measure of censorship and restrictions on the freedom of expression.

• X believes that the court was wrong in its assessment that it is not entitled to the right to personal liberty under the Constitution, according to sources

The issue goes back to June 2022, when MeitY served notices to X (then Twitter) alleging that the platform was non-compliant with the IT Rules, 2021.

Go deeper

• Bengaluru-based Personifwy has introduced HYRGPT, a generative AI-based recruitment copilot, that can handle the initial two rounds of the hiring process and reduce hiring time by 30-70%.

• Google is testing AI-generated summaries for YouTube videos, but they are currently limited to a few videos.

Ever wanted to quit your job in a really memorable way? Or maybe you need to break up with someone, but you're too chicken to do it in person. Well, now you can hire a celebrity to do it for you!

That's right, there's an app called Cameo where you can pay stars to record personalised videos for you. And people are using it for all sorts of wild things, like quitting their jobs, breaking up with their partners, and even delivering apologies. 

One user, Christopher Gonzalez, decided to use Cameo to break the news of his resignation to his colleagues and manager. He hired American Idol star William Hung to deliver the message, and Hung even broke into song at the end.

• Gonzalez said it was the best $30 he ever spent, and his boss and colleagues had a good laugh over the video

Note: By subscribing to Tech3 you have already made the right choice. Top it up with a premium offering, the Moneycontrol Pro Panorama, a newsletter that gives you a sharp take on macros, markets, business and finance. Sign up for Pro from this link to get this newsletter in your inbox and also a host of content enjoyed by 500,000+ subscribers.