'We had two options: Complex law or start with clean slate': MoS IT

'Non-personal data is the raw material for AI. If you start having a regulator sit on top of it, it will impact the growth of the sector', said Chandrasekhar

The day after the government withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, spoke to Surajeet Das Gupta and Sourabh Lele on the reasons behind the decision, and more. Edited excerpts from the interview:  

Why was the Personal Data Protection Bill withdrawn and what does replacing it with a comprehensive framework actually mean?

The Bill, modified by the Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP), became very complex because of the large number of recommendations made by the panel. It veered away from the core issues of data protection and information privacy, like trusted hardware,