Non-personal data panel eyes public consultation

BENGALURU: A committee set up to frame a law for regulating non-personal data has held preliminary discussions on how to approach the drafting of the law and is yet to take a call on seeking public comments, people familiar with the matter said.

Non-personal data, including data collected by technology platforms such as Uber, Google and Amazon, are under the purview of the draft legislation.

The committee, headed by Infosys cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan, has not yet made a decision on wider public consultation and releasing a White Paper, like how the Srikrishna Committee had done for personal data last year.


“The committee has started having discussions on how to look at this new area, as there is no basic global template available to work from. The discussions are preliminary and we have not decided whether we will release a White Paper or hold public consultation on it like (how) the Srikrishna committee did,” the person said.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT set up the committee in September to come up with the draft, which would also govern community data, anonymised data, and ecommerce data.

“While the committee deliberations are going on, I won’t be able to discuss these,” Gopalakrishnan told ET.

Another person familiar with the discussions said nothing on the approach or public consultation has been decided by the committee yet, and it would be risky to hasten the process.

“We hope that the committee will hold extensive consultations. It is not a standalone issue anymore if the government is waiting for this report before tabling the personal data protection Bill.

The timelines are not clear. It is hard to say how quickly they will turn it around,” said Nehaa Chaudhari, head of public policy at Ikigai Law.