MeitY to hold consultation with industry on data law this week

The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) will hold a consultation meeting with industry stakeholders on the recently enacted Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), 2023 in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The government is likely to come out with a graded timeline for the implementation of rules under DPDPA, a senior official had said recently.

Big Tech companies are likely to get less time than startups, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), government departments and other state governments to implement the rules around the DPDPA, the official had said.


The government is also ready with a broad draft of the 21 rules under DPDPA, the official had said, adding that the government would now begin consultation on these rules.

The consultation meeting will be chaired by IT minister of state Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The DPDP Bill was introduced in parliament on August 3; it was passed on August 9 in the Rajya Sabha. The much awaited Bill received the President's assent on August 11.

The law bars companies and businesses (data fiduciaries) from processing personal data of users without their explicit consent.

Companies which process such personal data must give exact details of the purpose for which the data is collected and delete it as and when this consent is withdrawn.

The Act has also moved to a “blacklisting” approach for cross-border transfer and processing of personal data, meaning that the government would specify certain geographies where data cannot be processed.

The Act suggests a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore per instance of data breach and a maximum penalty of Rs 500 crore for all such breaches.