Top court adjourns matter for six weeks to give WhatsApp, RBI time to file compliance reports
The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill, expected to be tabled in Parliament soon, has proposed the data of all Indian users be stored within the country
The RBI had, in April last year, asked payment firms to ensure their data were stored exclusively on local servers, setting a tight six-month deadline for compliance
Asia Internet Coalition says draft e-commerce policy must not classify data as a community resource.
Global payment firms have expressed concerns about the RBI's April directive and the issue is believed to have been on the agenda of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit
RBI sticks clarifies that payment transactions can be processed outside the country.
The RBI in April 2018 put out a circular requiring that all 'data relating to payment systems' are 'stored in a system only in India' within six months
Reserve Bank had given six months time till October 15 to global payment companies to store transaction data of Indian customers within India
Mandatory nature of localisation within specific regions ups risks of security breaches and data misuse; lack of strong protection regime may lower data protection and efficacy of payments ecosystem
Last week, two top American Senators wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to reconsider the RBI's decision on data localization
But stern action from the RBI unlikely for now
RBI had issued a circular instructing all payments system providers in the country to ensure that data relating to systems operated by them is stored only in India and had set a deadline of Oct 15
In April, the central bank had given six months to global payment companies to store transaction data of Indian customers within India
The two credit card giants have requested an extension of the deadline and a relaxation of the rules, citing operational difficulties and security concerns
Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met RBI Deputy Governor B P Kanungo to discuss RBI's data localisation norms
Global tech companies including Mastercard, Visa and American Express have been lobbying India's finance ministry
Despite a suggestion from the finance ministry to allow data mirroring instead of exclusive storage, the RBI did not budge
Global financial technology companies have reportedly sought an extension of the October 15 deadline
But some experts stated that the government should not allow firms to store data outside country
When governments build barriers to protect companies, then consumers suffer, growth stagnates, and the entire country falls behind the rest of the world