Free Flow of Cross Border Data to Help Startups, Global Companies to Contribute to India’s Economy: Sundar Pichai
The government has sought public feedback on the contours of the draft Bill by September 30.
Google has advocated free flow of cross-border data as the country is mulling to bring about data localization in its data protection framework.
“Free flow of data across borders — with a focus on user privacy and security — will encourage startups to innovate and expand globally and encourage global companies to contribute to India’s digital economy,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a letter to Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
In a letter thanking Prasad for his visit to the Google’s Mountain View campus last month, Pichai said the company shares the vision of creating a truly ‘Digital India’ and Google remains firmly committed to being part of the India growth story as reported by some news sources.
He further said that the Google team in India will be in touch with your office to follow up on some of the specific topics we discussed during our meeting.”
The development comes at a time when the government is working on a data protection framework for the country.
Further, in July, a high-level panel headed by Justice B N Srikrishna had submitted its recommendations and the draft bill on data protection to Prasad.
This particular recommendation has met with criticism from various quarters especially American technology company groupings.
It had suggested steps for safeguarding personal information, defining obligations of data processors as also rights of individuals, and mooting penalties for violation. The government has sought public feedback on the contours of the draft Bill by September 30.
