India has become the growth market darling of the world, with a digital economy on track to reach a $1tn valuation by 2022. But it is not clear which path Narendra Modi’s government will take in pursuit of that lofty valuation. Will India go the way of Europe or China? Internet users in India — and companies wanting to do business there — are now asking themselves that question.
The clues are contradictory. Even as the world’s largest democracy considers implementing strong user privacy protections, along the lines of the EU’s general data protection regulation, the government has also proposed Chinese-style rules to exert control over India’s data and proactively surveil and censor its web users.
While businesses around the world are familiar with GDPR, comparatively little attention has been paid to India’s proposed data protection law. If passed, this bill would reshape the relationship between 1.3bn Indians and the companies and government actors to whom they entrust their data.