What next on data protection?

The withdrawal of the Personal Data Protection Bill from Parliament came as a surprise, particularly after so much effort was put into it over the last five years. The JPC recommended moving away from a personal data protection law towards a law to govern the entire data ecosystem. In the short term, however, the government would do well to put in place a specific personal data protection law – given the effort already dedicated to this. Editorial: A fresh opportunity: On the rollback of the Personal Data Protection Bill The second issue is the nature of privacy protection any new law will provide to individuals. For instance, creating a cross-sectoral data protection entity with the power to take significant coercive action is seen as problematic given the rule of law, capacity and regulatory constraints in India.