More lenient provisions of penalties in the current draft was a result of lobbying by Big Tech, Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari suggested in his dissent note carried in the Joint Parliamentary Committee's report on the PDP Bill, 2019. Big tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon had appeared before the committee for depositions, according to the report. Last-minute dilution (of penalties)..are strongly suggestive of last-minute panic lobbying by Big Tech Companies for these provisions that were part of the Original PDP Bill referred to committee by the House. They remained unamended from the date of commencement of the deliberations to the tabling of the penultimate & final draft of the bill. No reasonable or rational justification has been provided for this change — Manish Tewari The JPC report along with the Data Protection Bill, 2021 was tabled in both houses of the Parliament on December 16, after two years of deliberations. The dissent notes from committee members give a view of what the current draft of the bill fails to take into account. Here’s our complete guide to the Data Protection Bill, 2021 Amendments to penalties provision will make India a 'laughing stock' Tewari said that in the 2019 draft of the Bill, the penalty for a data fiduciary for (committing) a particular offense was either Rs 5 crore or 2% of the company's total worldwide turnover of the preceding financial year (whichever was higher). "This has been now amended to read "as may be prescribed" in the final…
