Data protection law soon: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Bengaluru: Union IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said the government was very keen to promote India as a very big centre of the data economy and would finalise a data protection law very soon.

Addressing the Bengaluru Tech Summit, 2020 (BTS2020) virtually, he said India produces huge data and the digital ecosystem, like mobile phones and Aadhaar, is producing data.

"We are going to finalise a data protection law very soon. India is waiting for its movement for data economy, data innovation, data refinery. I would urge the Chief Minister (of Karnataka) to ensure that the state becomes a great centre of India's data economy," he added.

Organised by the Karnataka government, along with Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society, the state government's Vision Group on Information Technology, Biotechnology & StartUp and Software Technology Parks of India, the summit, that saw the inaugural address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is scheduled to take place from November 19 to 21.

Prasad said even during the pandemic the communications sector witnessed a growth of over seven per cent and also received significant investments from major global companies. "It is a challenging time and we decided to convert it into an opportunity. The global manufacturing world was looking towards alternative destinations. In view of India's enormous success in mobile manufacturing, we came up with a big idea of production linked incentive," he said.