NovoJuris Legal is proud to announce the Inter-collegiate Essay Competition on Data Protection and its various facets. Data Protection has taken very high importance not only in India but across the World. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (“Bill”) and the Data Protection Committee’s (“Committee”) Report (released on 27 July 2018) provides for the framework and the policymakers’ insight on protection of individual’s privacy and personal data in India. The Bill has set high expectations particularly after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) came into force on 25 May 2018. It is also essential to note the important judgments including the now famous “Aadhar case” of Justice Puttaswamy (Retd.) V. Union of India. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April this year has mandated that all data generated by the payment systems in India, is to be stored in India. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has also published the draft legislation called Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act, to safeguard e-health records and patients’ privacy. Thus, all these new rules/policies/regulations (collectively referred as “the Data Protection Framework”) indicate a very strong direction that the Government wishes to undertake on protection of data including but not limited to data localisation, which helps in enforcing data protection, nation’s security and protect its citizen’s data, better control on transmission of data outside the country and more. Topics for the Essay Competition: The following sub-themes have been identified as requiring academic consideration:
- General Data Protection Regulation in European Union has raised the bar on legislation on data protection across the world. Would this be beneficial or would it stunt technological growth and innovation?
- Is our Privacy safe under the Aadhar scheme? A critical analysis of change in the privacy law regime post Aadhar case in India.
- Implication and critical analysis of the Data (Privacy and Protection) Bill, 2017.
- Do we need a stronger consumer centric data protection law in India like the Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge – Provider Network Transgressions (CONSENT Act), USA in the aftermath of the Facebook data breach incident?
- With all the industry specific regulator (RBI, TRAI, MHoW and etc.) providing various regulations, guidelines and draft policy notes with regards to Data Protection Framework in India, what do you think the outcome will be? Is India formalizing a uniform law for data protection?
