The panel felt that having to store vast amounts of data within the country, whether exclusively or as a copy, would have an adverse socio-economic impact on innovation, information and technology access, and trade.. to consider a more liberal stance for final Data Protection Bill. Mr. TV Ramachandran, President Broadband India Forum stated, “this meeting was to get a China off grid inverter Manufacturers wide range of inputs from stakeholders to finalize the BIF response to be sent shortly. Swati Punia, CUTs spoke from the consumer point of view.The panel meeting was well-attended with over fifty representatives from the media, high-profile authors, policy experts, industry and consumer rights groups. Nikhil Pahwa, Founder CEO – MediaNAMA remarked that other democracies around the world are also addressing concerns around lawful access to data located in a cloud without resorting to data localisation.

　　She felt that the draft bill was tilted towards establishing data sovereignty or government restrictions versus consumer sovereignty where users control the data.Should the final Data Protection Bill relax data localisation requirements to sustain our record GDP growth? Does data localisation even solve the original intent of the bill – to protect our data? Is the current draft bill lopsided in prescribing penalties for corporations but without checks and balances regarding government surveillance? Will India’s increasingly internet-savvy public be burdened with higher costs due to localisation of vast amounts of data?These were the main topics of discussion at the Broadband India Forum (BIF) panel discussion on the recently released draft Bill on Data Protection.” Data-driven innovation and data privacy could peacefully co-exist provided citizen privacy is protected from unwarranted government surveillance as well.

　　Localisation requirements will make it cost-prohibitive for startups and also undermine their capability to access global markets through digital platforms.The meeting concluded with a debate on the role of the Data Protection Authority – how will their role be defined going forward? The panel recommended that the final bill includes checks and balances for when the government can access an individual’s data, and provide options for recourse for affected individuals. Kuldip Singh, former member TDSAT, talked about India presently also lacking the infrastructure and capacity needed to set up and maintain large data centres. Editor Economic Times stated, “Protecting Indians’ personal data is critical for national safety but is demanding data be physically located in India the answer?”