BSA, the software alliance that represents Microsoft, Apple, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Intel, Adobe, Akamai, Oracle and IBM wants the government to “undertake further consultation” before they introduce the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 in the Parliament, Business Insider reported quoting Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, the Country Manager, BSA India. The alliance feels that the data protection bill, which is expected to be tabled in the budget session of Parliament starting June 17, is “considerably different” from what was initially presented to it. Krishnamoorthy believes that since the GDPR is about to complete a year, “there were[are] learnings” that India can take from EU’s experience of the laws. While he believes that India’s data protection bill is a “step in the right direction” and appreciates the “thorough efforts” made by the government in drafting the bill, a further round of consultations will make the bill “more robust” than what it currently is. Medianama has reached out to Krishnamoorthy for comment, we will update this when we hear from him. Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, has already announced that one of his key priorities as IT Minister would be to pass the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 in the first session of the Parliament. The bill was drafted by a panel headed by (Retd) Justice BN Srikrishna and submitted to the government in August 2018. It was expected to be taken up in the final session of Parliament before the 2019 general elections, but wasn't introduced at all. Following are some of the key features…
