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Data Protection Bill To Be Introduced In Monsoon Session

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The IT Ministry had planned to bring the proposed law before Parliament during the Budget session, but was unable to do so because of interruptions in the House, according to a senior government official. The work on the data protection Bill is finished.

It has been heard that the Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022, would now be introduced in Parliament's Monsoon Session. The draught law has been modified by the Ministry of Electronics and IT in accordance with recommendations from the Department of Legal Affairs, and it will now go before the Cabinet for approval in the upcoming days, the official added.

The second leg of the Parliament's budget session, which was disrupted daily by both the ruling and opposition benches, finished on Thursday.

In the first days of the second leg of the budget session, BJP members caused disruptions in the Houses, demanded an apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comments made in the UK, and pushed for a joint parliamentary panel investigation into the allegations against the Adani group from the opposition. Rahul's exclusion from the MP race adds fuel to the fire.

The additional amendments to the Bill could, in a move that could further liberalise the conditions for data transfers, allow global data flows by default to all jurisdictions other than a defined negative list of nations where such transfers would be prohibited. According to the draught rule on cross-border data transfers, the Center must alert nations or territories where Indian residents' personal data may be transferred.