India's digital lending industry has grown exponentially in the last decade. Now the industry allows consumers to borrow money from peer-to-peer lenders. In India, the Aadhaar identity program was launched in 2009, allotting unique 12-digit identification numbers to billions of citizens. The Aadhaar adoption — coupled with the India Stack initiative, a set of application programming interfaces allowing entities to utilize digital infrastructure for presenceless, paperless and cashless service d... Read More

Industry stakeholders took a firm stance on holding India's government to phased implementation of the proposed Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, The Economic Times reports. In comments to Indian Parliament's public consultation on the bill, industry players opined the 24-month grace period found in India's past privacy proposals should be carried over to the latest bill. Additionally, BSA|The Software Alliance called for implementing regulations to be finalized 12 months following potentia... Read More

The Government of India told the Supreme Court of India that a revised data protection bill will be tabled in Parliament's Winter Session, ANI reports. During a hearing challenging WhatsApp's privacy notice, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court the government is "alive" to India's lack of a privacy framework and a reworked bill is "underway." Supreme Court justices asked Mehta and the government to bring the bill before Parliament to resolve the WhatsApp case or they will move to a fina... Read More

TechCrunch reports Indian Parliament published the draft Telecommunication Bill 2022, which aims to regulate digital communications. The bill allows the government to view all online communications in cases of perceived national security or public safety concerns while giving agencies immunity from potential lawsuits stemming from such intervention. The legislation also addresses spam messages, proposing consent requirements and a "Do Not Disturb" registry. The government opened a public consult... Read More

The Hindustan Times reports Reserve Bank of India deputy governor T Rabi Sankar said the new draft data protection bill should include protections for customer data. He also cautioned that monetization of customer data should offer “some level of consent.” Last month, Indian Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw suggested a new data protection bill could be tabled during Parliament's next budget session in January 2023.Full Story... Read More

Four years ago India received the landmark Puttaswamy judgment, which enshrined the right to privacy for the world's largest democracy. Since then, through various iterations, the government of India has attempted to devise an act that can adequately ensure the privacy of its more than 760 million active internet users. Versions of the Personal Data Protection Bill were proposed in 2018 and 2019, each receiving extensive scrutiny from experts across the country and alarming tech giants with requ... Read More

A Joint Parliamentary Committee's final report on India's Personal Data Protection Bill has been tabled in Parliament's two chambers. Lok Sabha outlined the report, which features 81 recommendations from the JPC and 150 corrections and improvements to various provisions. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have until the end of the Winter Session Dec. 23 to consider and approve the report before acting on the bill, which may be considered in the current session or a future session. Key discrepancies remai... Read More