Dear, colleagues.

With yet another decisive mandate for the Narendra Modi government, the community hopes for continuity of reforms undertaken by the previous government, including the enactment of the impending data protection law. Last reported, the draft was readied by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and will be tabled in Parliament based on policy priorities set by the new government. In the past, the Supreme Court has reminded the government to speed up the process for enactment of the proposed data protection law.

Thursday, the Indian Railway ticket booking agency triggered an interesting discussion when an individual took to Twitter to complain about inappropriate ads being thrown up while browsing the website. Most deliberations on intrusive ads and associated harms end with, “it’s an ad-driven world, we need alternate business models.” Will we ever get past this stage?

Last week, Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission and Asian Business Law Institute celebrated Privacy Awareness Week in Singapore. Government representatives, data protection authorities, industry, academia and civil society representatives gathered to take stock on data protection evolution in Asian economies and scope for harmonization. One interesting theme that resonated in the meetings was the need to augment thought leadership on data protection from Asian stakeholders. Expect exciting work to come out soon from Asia (other than federal regulations, that is).

Thank you, and have a great day ahead!