The Government has recently introduced National Policy on Electronics (NPE) and National Policy on Software Products (NPSP) in 2019 for the growing digital economy. The details are available on Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s website (https://meity.gov.in/).

Further, a draft National e-Commerce policy has been prepared and placed for comments in public domain. The draft National e-Commerce policy has been prepared to create a facilitative regulatory environment for growth of e-commerce sector in India and to leverage access to data such that data of Indians can be used for the growth of digital economy in India. The policy establishes strategies which aim to

(i) empower domestic entrepreneurs and encourage Make in India;

(ii) safeguard interests of the consumers;

(iii) ensure creation of jobs in the digital sphere in the times to come;

(iv) promote domestic research and development in digital innovation and

(v) prevent misuse of data while maintaining the spirit of existing regulations.

The Government had constituted a committee of expert on data protection, chaired by Justice (Retd) B.N. Srikrishna, Supreme Court of India, to study various issues relating to data protection and come out with the Data Protection Bill. The Srikrishna committee has brought out a draft Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB). The framework seeks to put in place a culture of privacy by design and promoting concepts such as consent framework, purpose limitation, storage limitation, and data minimization among various other privacy-oriented concepts. Wide-ranging consultations have been conducted on the recommendations of the committee with a view to finalizing the draft legislation. 

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Commerce and Industry, Som Parkash, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

***

MM/SB

Data protection framework: consent and purpose limitation to safeguard personal data and enable domestic digital growth. The draft National e Commerce policy seeks to promote domestic digital growth by empowering local entrepreneurs, safeguarding consumers, creating digital jobs, and promoting domestic research while enabling use of Indian data for economic benefit subject to safeguards. The companion draft Personal Data Protection Bill advances privacy by design and establishes a consent framework, purpose limitation, storage limitation, and data minimization to prevent misuse of personal data.