The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC), in cooperation with its knowledge partner Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, organized a seminar on 'Data Protection and Privacy in India: The Emerging Picture' on Tuesday, 22nd January 2019, from 15:00 to 17:00 hours, at the premises of IGCC, Mumbai, to drive the discussion around this emerging picture, and its impact on corporate India.

2018 has been a watershed year for privacy and data protection jurisprudence in India.

In August 2017, a 9 judge bench of the Supreme Court of India reaffirmed that the Right to Privacy was a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution of India. It also declared that this right was a horizontal right, i.e. entitled to protection against private entities.

In July 2018, a Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice BN Srikrishna (Retd.) submitted a draft of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (PDP Bill) and its accompanying report to the Government.

The PDP Bill proposes a near total overhaul of India’s existing general data protection regime. While broadly aligning with global data protection regimes including the GDPR, it also incorporates some unique proposals such as including a local storage requirement, fiduciary obligations, and defining categories of 'significant' and 'guardian' data fiduciaries, who are subject to more stringent obligations.

In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India while upholding the constitutionality of the legal framework governing Aadhaar, read down several key portions of it, including on grounds of such provisions constituting an unreasonable restriction on the right to privacy. In doing so, it read principles of data protection including storage and purpose limitation into law.

On 22nd January 2019, the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC), together with its knowledge partner Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, organized a seminar on ‘Data Protection and Privacy in India: The Emerging Picture’, at IGCC’s office in Mumbai.

Mr. Arun Prabhu, Partner of the law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas addressed the audience, with a presentation on the current scenario concerning Data Protection and Privacy in India, in the background of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (PDP Bill). He touched upon various points including how relevant GDPR rules are to Indo-German companies and a comparison between the PDP Bill and GDPR.

Mr. Bernhard Steinruecke, Director General, IGCC welcomed the audience and moderated the programme.

The seminar was attended by around 30 participants.