Hello from India.
I headed back to India after attending the IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2024 in Washington, D.C., and I'm enjoying the lovely spring weather there — straight into what is being considered the hottest summer in Indian history. Talk about reality hitting you in the face. Along with the heat from the Sun God, we in India are also dealing with the heat from election fever.
The elections got me curious about the manifestos of some of the key political parties to see what they had to say about their plans for the overall governance around data, technology and artificial intelligence. Here is what I unearthed:
Privacy and the DPDPA
The Bhartiya Janata Party, or the BJP, India's current ruling party at the center, has — interestingly — remained silent about its plans for release of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act Rules. Nor does it mention the introduction of the Digital India Act. These two are probably the most critical aspects of governance in this space, with the DIA expected to cover key aspects around AI governance.
On the other hand, the Congress Party has promised to amend or delete any "restrictive provisions" in the DPDPA. Also, in a broad statement, the party's manifesto states, "We promise to review all laws that interfere with the right to privacy and make suitable amendments to various laws to uphold the right to privacy."
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI(M), has stated it would scrap the DPDPA, saying that it strengthens "digital authoritarianism." It wants to replace the DPDPA with a new legislation in line with the Supreme Court's Puttaswamy Judgement on privacy being a fundamental right.
AI governance
The congress manifesto is surprisingly silent on regulation around AI. It only talks of supporting AI for generating new employment opportunities.
Interestingly, so is the BJP's. There is no mention of anything specific on the use or regulation of AI. Nor is there any mention of some of the most discussed aspects in the government — like the digital health stack, cybersecurity, smart cities, etc.
The CPI(M) at least mentions regulation of AI, genetic engineering and a few other related topics, but has no details.
Deepfakes and AI
Talking of elections, another topic coming up in the news is deepfake videos and audios using AI.
The latest is about a deepfake video circulating on social media concerning the Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah. His party, the BJP, has filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission of India on the topic.
Earlier, popular actor Ranveer Singh filed a legal complaint about a deepfake video that showed him criticizing the BJP government. The week before, another popular actor, Aamir Khan, was a victim of a viral deepfake video showing him endorsing a political party.
Of course, the incidents involving political heavyweights and celebrities bubble up, so one can only speculate about all that is likely going on on the ground.
What's to come after the elections
While the elections go on, some of us are already focusing on what is expected post elections.
Irrespective of what has been said, or not said, in the manifestos, indications on what's to come are otherwise positive.
For example, there is every indication the new Central Government plans to notify the rules under the DPDPA within the first 100 days. A senior government official mentioned this in a conversation with the Business Standard a while ago. The rules are critical as they would provide much needed enforcement clarity to the eight-month-old DPDPA.
Speaking to the Economic Times 5 April, Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government will come up with a new law on AI that protects the rights of news publishers and content creators. It may be a new legislation or part of the upcoming Digital India Act.
Another media report in early April mentioned that a committee comprised of members from key ministries like MeitY, the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Telecommunications and the government agency NITI Aayog has advised the government to follow an "inter-ministerial" approach toward AI governance.
Switching gears, WhatsApp is in the news again.
On 25 Feb. 2021, the Central Government passed the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Under Rule 4(2), significant social media intermediaries like WhatsApp, Meta, Instagram and X, were required to enable the identification of the "first originator" of a message. This was in view of curbing fake news and other offenses affecting law and order.
WhatsApp filed a petition before the Delhi High Court stating this act of traceability required the platform to break its end-to-end encryption. This, in turn, impinged on Indians' fundamental right to privacy. WhatsApp urged the court to declare Rule 4(2) unconstitutional.
During the recent hearing on the petition, WhatsApp's advocate told the court that if the platform is required to break encryption, it would leave the country.
The court has adjourned the case to 14 Aug., when it will be heard with other cases that challenge the IT Rules 2021. It will be interesting to see where this leads.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India continues to be active. It recently announced yet another measure in its fight against the menace of illegal lending apps in India that harass customers for repayments and misuse their personal data. The regulator is considering setting up a Digital India Trust Agency, which among other things, would maintain a public register of authorized digital lending apps.
As I wrap up, I wanted to talk of a data point I picked up about India, this time from a 2024 phishing report from Zscaler. According to the report, India emerged as one of the top three countries targeted by phishing scams globally, with more than 79 million phishing attacks in 2023. This puts India behind only the U.S. and U.K., a position that is certainly worrisome.
One does hope that as the summer first peaks and then gradually ebbs over the coming couple of months and we have a new Central Government in place, we start seeing some accelerated developments around the establishment of several much-needed guardrails to manage the onslaught of data and technology in India.
Meanwhile, I plan to get through the summer by focusing on my favorite fruit of all seasons — the mango.
