The government plans to include data regulation provisions in a new Digital India Act, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday.

While speaking at an event at the Foreign Correspondent Club of South Asia in New Delhi on 5G, Chandrasekhar said the recently-issued draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) focuses on the protection of data of Indian citizens.

“It (DPDP) does not intend to appoint a regulator and create regulation for the data ecosystem. That is down the road when we create a new bill for Digital India Act. This is a bill which narrowly focuses on data protection of consumers,” Chandrasekhar said, according to a PTI report from New Delhi.

The government has issued a draft of a new data protection bill after it withdrew the previous version of the bill from the Lok Sabha (Lower House of parliament) in August citing several overlapping rules in the modified version of the Bill.

Talking about 5G, the minister said that the next-generation technology is based on an open technology ecosystem, which provides India with an opportunity to lead the segment from just being a consumer of the technology.

Meanwhile, on Thursday Chandrashekhar’s senior, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, had allayed concerns over the extent of independence of the government-appointed oversight body proposed in the draft Data Protection Bill, saying just like the (central bank) RBI and (markets regulator) SEBI, the architecture of the new body will ensure its autonomy on issues.

Vaishnaw, who was speaking at Times Now Summit 2022, also countered criticism around the draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill and questions around surveillance and said the risk of terrorist threats and cyber threats, as well as the changing nature of global warfare have to be kept in mind.

These realities have to be considered, and a balanced view has to be taken. The Supreme Court, he said, has set clear processes on surveillance, with many checks and balances, according to a report filed by PTI on the Thursday event.

To questions being raised on just how independent the proposed Data Protection Board will be, the Minister made it clear that independence and autonomy comes from law, and cited the strong reputation enjoyed by the RBI, SEBI, all over the world. Since the draft data protection Bill clearly mentions that the proposed Data Protection Board will be independent and perform in a certain way, “automatically its independence is guaranteed”.