Prime Minister’s Office to take final call on data localisation soon: Report

New Delhi, Aug 08 : The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will soon make a decision on data localisation, according to a report by The Economic Times.
The PMO has also requested fresh consultations on the proposed Personal Data Protection Bill, the report said.
“The matter is now with the PMO. They will firm up India’s stance on data localisation,” an unnamed source told the paper.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has meanwhile clarified that a copy of personal data can be stored overseas in case of cross-border transactions. Digital payments services are required to follow the central bank’s instructions on data storage.
Google Pay and Amazon Pay have already complied with the data localisation guidelines. The central bank will soon release a report on whether WhatsApp has complied with the rule.
A panel led by Justice BN Srikrishna had in 2018 released a set of draft guidelines on data privacy. The Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 (PDPB) is framed along the lines of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has criticised India’s attempts to restrict cross-border flow of data and its data localisation requirements.
“The US has opposed India’s policies, irrespective of the department that floated them. However, the top political quarters understand the strategic importance of data, predominantly the security angle, especially when many countries including China and the US have dedicated official social media warfare cells,” an expert told The Economic Times.