New Bill on data privacy will be ready “soon”, says Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday assured that the new bill on data privacy will be ready “soon” and the Information Technology minister has been diligently working on it.

Ashwini Vaishnaw is the Union minister for information and technology.

“We will soon have a new Data Privacy Bill, which will be a product of consultations and will address every such concern most of us had on the privacy Bill,” she said.

Sitharaman made the remarks here today while addressing the ongoing India Ideas Summit organised by US-India Business Council.

The central government last month withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 from the Lok Sabha several months after it was introduced.

Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had said the Bill was withdrawn because the Joint Parliamentary Committee recommended 81 amendments in a bill of 99 sections.

“Above that it made 12 major recommendations. Therefore, the bill has been withdrawn and a new bill will be presented for public consultation,” he had then tweeted.

Further, in her address to the US-India Business Council, she said jobs, equitable wealth distribution and ensuring that India is still on the path of growth are some of her top red-letter priorities.

However, according to her, inflation is not as it was brought down to “some manageable levels”.

To put things into context, India’s retail inflation fell to 6.71 per cent in July, the lowest level in five months, helped by an easing in food and oil prices, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) data, it has been over the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance band of 6 per cent for the seventh consecutive month in a row.

The previous month – June, the retail inflation was at 7.01 per cent in June. Inflation figures for August are expected early next week.