India's Revised Data Privacy Bill Appears As Relief For Big Techs, But Also Comes With Harsher Penalty

India plans to allow the transfer and storing of personal data in some countries overseas.
The move marks a truce for global companies, including Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Google, Amazon.com Inc AMZN, and Meta Platforms Inc’s META Facebook.
The government will “notify such countries or territories outside India to which a data fiduciary may transfer personal data,” according to the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill.
An earlier version of the bill had sought to severely restrict the transfer, processing, and storage of data overseas.
The critical piece of proposed legislation comes as digitization thrives in the country of 1.4 billion, where usage of smartphones and apps is zooming, Bloomberg reported.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill of 2022 requires consent before collecting personal data.
It proposes stiff penalties of as much as ₹5 billion ($61.2 million) on persons and companies that fail to prevent data breaches.
The new draft bill proposes setting up the Data Protection Board of India, which will monitor and determine non-compliance and impose penalties.
Companies like Amazon and Meta will have to appoint data protection officers based in India to represent them.
The draft bill also requires companies like the parent entities of Google and Facebook to be accountable to a “consent manager.”
The personal data of children cannot be obtained or processed without parental consent.