A new data privacy bill will be drafted soon, Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed

India will “soon get a new data privacy bill”, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed on Wednesday. Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav is working on it, the minister said the new bill will address every such concern that most people have on the privacy bill. Last month, the government withdrew the controversial Personal Data Protection Bill, announcing it was working on a new comprehensive law. The 2019 bill proposed stricter rules on cross-border data flows and suggested giving the government powers to obtain user data from companies.

Speaking at the India Ideas Summit organized by the US-India Business Council, Sitharaman made the comments regarding the introduction of the new data privacy bill today, PTI reported.

“We will soon have a new Data Privacy Bill, which will be the product of the consultation and will address every concern that most of us have about the Privacy Bill,” she said.

The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 was withdrawn by the government in August after a parliamentary panel review of the 2019 bill suggested several amendments. Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had earlier said that the Joint Committee has recommended 81 amendments to the 99-Article Bill. There are 12 more recommendations and a new bill will be introduced that will fit into a comprehensive legal framework.

The bill raised concerns among big tech companies like Facebook and Google that it could increase their compliance burdens and data storage requirements.