Indian Data Protection Plans In Jeopardy?

by Lorys Charalambous, for LawAndTax-News.com, Cyprus

28 May 2004

Proposed new legislation designed to boost data protection and privacy levels with regard to information outsourced to India by UK and other overseas firms may have been jeopardised by the recent election results, a technology media report has suggested.

Speaking to the Silicon.com news service prior to the surprise victory by the opposition Congress alliance over the BJP Party, Sunil Mehta, vice president of Indian IT industry body, Nasscom announced that following several delays, the body's recommendations on data protection had been accepted by politicians, and were waiting to be passed.

"There are legitimate, if misplaced, concerns about if information is safe. The UK's Financial Services Authority is increasingly aware of this and we have been able to demonstrate we have the processes in place," he told Silicon.com, adding that:

"We have been able to do a gap analysis between European and Indian law on privacy and we identified exact laws that need to be changed."

However, some observers have warned that the overthrow of the BJP by rural and low income Indian voters who have largely not benefited from the country's technology revolution, could mean that the concerns of overseas outsourcers remain on the back burner for some time.

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