Rewriting India’s decades-old technology laws in 2023

By: Nikhil Narendran (Partner), and Karishma Sundara (Counsel)

This article was originally published on Taylor Wessing’s Global Data Hub

India’s technology law framework is set for a significant revamp in 2023. In March, the Government began the consultation process for the long-awaited Digital India Act (DIA). Representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology met with stakeholders across the industry to unveil the rationale for replacing the two-decades-old Information Technology Act, 2000 (the IT Act). A draft of the DIA, though expected at the end of April, is yet to be released.

The decision to consult stakeholders on the DIA comes close on the heels of the Government’s publication of the draft data protection law, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (DPDP Bill), which was released for public consultation in November 2022. The DPDP Bill adopts a simpler approach to data protection as against its predecessors, which were more closely modelled on the General Data Protection Regulation. A revised draft of the DPDP Bill (whose final form remains unknown) is, however, expected to be introduced in Parliament this July or August. Both the DIA and the DPDP Bill are likely to considerably change how businesses reliant on the internet operate.

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