The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (“the Bill") after making an unsuccessful attempt to pass the Parliament was sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee to be mulled over again.
The Bill will be subject to further stakeholder inputs before being brought back in a 2020 variant with some new tweaks and additions.
Given that changes are imminent, it is premature to conclusively comment on certain aspects of the Bill, particularly with regard to the contentious data localization norms.
Certain provisions are expected to change the way data privacy is construed in India, especially those pertaining to safe-harbour exemptions in relation to corporate restructuring and internal ethical compliance for Indian companies.