In its response to the government's report on non-personal data governance, Bangalore-based private think tank iSPIRT Foundation said that the report is "sound in premise but murky in detail" and that "more work must be done to detail compliance requirements and standardize the mechanisms of sharing such data" before the report is finalised. iSPIRT said that among its fundamental beliefs regarding data is that the “user must be in charge” and that Indian companies should be in a level-playing field, for which “some ring-fencing must exist to protect against global data monopolies”. The MEITY Committee of Experts on governance of Non-Personal Data had recommended that a separate legislation be formulated to govern non-personal data, and that a new regulatory body should be formed for its governance. The committee, headed by former Infosys head Kris Gopalakrishnan, released its report in July and is accepting comments to it until September 13. iSPIRT Foundation has been instrumental in the development of UPI, and is now playing a key role in the development of the Health Stack and Open Credit Enablement Network, which is modelled on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for retail digital transactions. More than making recommendations, iSPIRT questioned the implications of the report, and sought clarity with regard to foreign investments and interaction with the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019. For instance, the report states that one of its key objectives “to promote and encourage the development of domestic industry and startups that can scale”. iSPIRT asked what the implications of…
