June 11, 2018

Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna is leading the effort to draft new Data-Privacy Laws for India that will regulate how tech giants from US and elsewhere operate in India, a nation of 1.3 Billion.

Justice B.N. Srikrishna the 77-year-old Former Supreme Court judge who recites Shakespeare and Sanskrit scriptures with equal facility. But he’s making likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook more than a little nervous.

His recommendations will carry particular weight because India is already the biggest market for the companies like Facebook Inc. and offers enormous potential for dozens more.

The Committee Justice Srikrishna helms will send its bill to Government this week.

Justice Srikrishna and his colleagues are determined to modernize the country’s standards and protect all citizens.

He has stated that,“India has accelerated from a ‘bail gaadi’ economy to a silicon-chip economy. But privacy and data regulation rules are still far behind.”

India has been careening into the digital age. The number of people with smartphones soared to 370 million users at end 2017, from 25 million in 2012, according to Counterpoint Research. The government has also developed one of the world’s most ambitious biometric identity systems, called Aadhaar, which assigned unique 12-digit numbers to 1.1 billion Indians and registered their fingerprints, iris scans and demographic details. That data is now used for everything from tax returns and property purchases to welfare disbursals and WhatsApp payments.

But this flood of data and an absence of regulation has fueled concern among privacy activists and citizens groups. That’s been aggravated by government practices, including a recent misstep by the southern state of Andhra Pradesh that inadvertently exposed the demographic and bank details of more than 130,000 people.

Justice Srikrishna heads a 10-member committee comprising of academics and the Government officials is putting finishing touches to their bill. Draft will need Parliament's approval to be enacted.

Justice Srikrishna retired in 2006 from Apex Court. Since then, he has headed several high-profile commissions, including one investigating government salaries.

Source ET

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