Does India have a Data Protection law ?

Does India have a Data Protection law ?

For sustaining and encouraging the BPO boom, India needs to have a legal framework that meets with the expectations, both legal and of a public nature, as prevail in the jurisdictions from which data is being shipped to India. In practical terms the biggest hurdle is for India to have its framework of domestic data protection laws officially adjudged and publicly perceived as “adequate”. The EU officially declares and lists ‘adequate’ countries in terms of its 1995 Data Protection Directive. Only a handful of countries like Argentina, Canada, Australia and Switzerland, have so far made it to this “white list.” If India were also to make it to this list by enacting a suitable legislation, industries within the EU Member states would be able to export data to India without having to follow otherwise compulsory difficult and cumbersome procedures.

India rather than limit itself to being a supplier of services to corporate America and Europe, India sees itself as the place where such corporations can establish themselves. Thus by creating a good data protection law India could extend well beyond being a mere supplier of services to the world's multi-national corporations. In effect, it wants to establish corporate India.