For the first time in history, the pronouns 'she' and 'her' have been used to refer to all individuals, as against the use of ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ in the draft of Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022.
The draft bill of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 proposes to set up a Data Protection Board of India, which will carry on functions as per the provisions of the bill.
For the first time in history, the pronouns 'she' and 'her' have been used to refer to all individuals, as against the use of ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ in the draft of Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022.
The draft was released on Friday, three months after the previous bill was withdrawn owing to debate.
"We have attempted in the philosophy of women's empowerment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji's government works to use the words she and her in the entire bill, instead of he, him and his. So this is an innovative thing which has been attempted in the bill," Union telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
According to the Vaishnaw, the move is to remain in sync with PM Modi's "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao" campaign, which seeks to empower the girl child and encourage families to educate and raise them well.
Further, the draft proposes to set up a Data Protection Board of India, which will carry on functions as per the provisions of the bill.
The government has raised the penalty amount to up to Rs 500 crore for violating the provisions proposed under the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022.
"If the Board determines at the conclusion of an inquiry that noncompliance by a person is significant, it may, after giving the person a reasonable opportunity of being heard, impose such a financial penalty as specified in Schedule 1, not exceeding rupees five hundred crore in each instance," the draft said.
The draft has proposed a graded penalty system for data fiduciary that will process the personal data of data owners only in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
The same set of penalties will be applicable to the Data processor -- which will be an entity that will process data on behalf of the Data Fiduciary.
The draft proposes a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore in case the Data Fiduciary or Data Processor fails to protect against personal data breaches in its possession or under its control.
The draft is open for public comment till December 17.
(with PTI inputs)