Duty hikes to data protection, policymakers slowly going the 'swadeshi' way

From raising import duties of high-value items such as consumer durables and electronics to proposed data protection norms mandating localisation of digital servers and recommendations of giving local promoters of e-commerce firms more control, Indian policymakers are slowly going the “swadeshi” way.

However, experts argue that while trade policy has witnessed “protectionist” tendencies in recent times, the same can’t be said for other policy measures such as proposed data protection.

Recommendations made by the Justice B N Srikrishna panel for the upcoming data protection bill, has been panned by global companies present in India. It has mandated that personal critical