NEW DELHI: Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said the government will come up with a robust data protection law which will set a global benchmark. “We will come up with data protection law that will set a global benchmark like the way we have done for Aadhaar,” Prasad said at a session on privacy and data protection. The minister said the government has formed a committee to give a structured report on data utility, data privacy, and data availability.
“That committee is to give a report in coming three months. I want to assure you that we respect data sovereignty of Indians but we also appeal to Indians that your data must be made available also for legitimate concerns, legitimate interest and for development of India,” Prasad said adding that data of people should be available for innovation and research.
India’s digital economy is set to grow to $1 trillion and stakeholders of the economy have said it will become $2 trillion in the next 5-7 years. “The projection is 50-75 lakh jobs will be created only in digital economy in coming 5-7 years apart from giving taxes,” Prasad said. He said that Digital transactions increased from 3,700 per day in November 2016 to 54 lakh per day at present and 93 mobile manufacturing companies have come to India.