A committee headed up by former Supreme Court Justice B.N. Srikrishna has released its long-awaited draft data protection bill for India. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 will now be reviewed by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. If passed, it would extend nationally and apply to the "processing of personal data where such data has been collected, disclosed, shared or otherwise processed within the territory of India," as well as data processed by the government. It would also create a data protection authority, "lay down norms for cross-border transfer of personal data," require that "data fiduciaries" appoint a data protection officer, among many other provisions. The committee also released a report on the bill, "A Free and Fair Digital Economy: Protecting Privacy, Empowering Indians." In a news conference Friday, Union Minister for Law and Justice & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad applauded the committee's efforts "that will pave [the] way for a robust data protection regime and give boost to India's rising economy." 
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