Policy tweak

The Draft Data Centre Policy 2020 is much needed for the digital economy, but could benefit from single window clearance, economic incentives and protections against misuse of data, writes PM Devaiah

The Draft Data Centre Policy 2020, recently announced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, holds early promise to bring about the right directions in an emerging market for data centres. The policy document states that the value of the country’s digital economy will be about US$1 trillion by 2025. The growth of the digital population in India, and the digital economy, necessitate the strong expansion of data centres to fulfil these demands.

The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, and the Draft Data Centre Policy 2020 are classic examples of complementary lawmaking to address an emerging area of the digital economy, and concomitant regulation in a holistic manner. From an international perspective, the mandates on data fiduciary, as to how personal data should be processed and stored, and obligations regarding people’s rights with respect to their personal information, provide credibility to data centres located in India.

The policy’s stated vision proclaims to make India a global data centre hub, promote investment in the sector, propel the growth of the digital economy, and provide trusted hosting infrastructure to fulfil the growing demand of the country and facilitate state-of-the-art service delivery to citizens.

PM Devaiah is the vice chairman and group general counsel at Everstone Capital.