The draft national e-commerce policy will focus on data localisation, reports Mint, citing sources. It added that the DIPP, now known as the DPIIT, may release the policy next week, but will keep it open for public consultation. Note that the release of this ecommerce policy has been a debate for the last 7 months at least. The new draft policy was leaked in August last year. At the time, it mandated the localisation of data in India, consistent with the Srikrishna Committee’s draft data protection bill. It provided incentives like waivers on import duties and other taxes needed to set up data storage centres. It had a two-year sunset clause by which e-commerce entities would have to move personal data to India. A month following this leak, Ramesh Abhishek and Amitabh Kant, Secretary of the erstwhile DIPP and CEO of NITI Aayog…
