The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 has tabled its ‘Report of the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 before the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament on 16 December 2021. In its Report, the Committee makes extensive recommendations on various provisions of the PDP Bill, 2019. This referencer engages with each recommendation of the Report individually with a view to assess the merit of these recommendations. It aims to serve as a useful document building on the Committee’s Report and to add to evidence based formulation of the domestic data protection law.
About the Authors
Trishee Goyal
Trishee Goyal was a Research Fellow with ALTR. She has previously worked with the Technology Policy team of the Macro Finance Group at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi for a period of three years. Trishee graduated from National Law School of India University, in 2014, with a B.A. LLB (Hons.). Her research interests are technology policy and regulatory governance.
Dhruv Somayajula
Dhruv was a Research Fellow with the Centre for Applied Law and Technology Research at Vidhi. He is interested in the interplay between law, technology and civil liberties. He graduated from the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad in 2019. Prior to joining Vidhi, he worked with Majmudar & Partners, Mumbai and has interned with the Centre for Communication Governance, NLU-Delhi, and the Centre for Internet and Society. He enjoys writing poetry, playing chess, and reading on Indian and world history in his spare time.
Arghya Sengupta
Arghya is the Founder and Research Director at Vidhi. His areas of specialisation are constitutional law and regulation of the digital economy. He has served on a number of government committees including the B.N. Srikrishna-led committee of experts on a data protection framework for India. Arghya has a number of academic publications on the Supreme Court and the Constitution in leading law journals such as Law Quarterly Review and Public Law. He is also a columnist at The Telegraph and The Times of India. He is the author of three books: "Independence and Accountability of the Indian Higher Judiciary" (Cambridge, 2019), "Hamīñ Ast? A Biography of Article 370" (co-authored - Navi Books, 2022) and most recently "The Colonial Constitution" (Juggernaut, 2023). Prior to founding Vidhi, he was at Oxford as a Lecturer in Administrative Law at Pembroke College.
Jai Vipra
Jai is a Senior Resident Fellow at the Centre for Applied Law and Technology Research (ALTR) at Vidhi. Her work focuses on the economics of platforms and its implications for regulation. Jai has previously worked at IT for Change and the National Institute for Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) in the areas of fintech, cryptocurrency, data commons, platforms and digital trade. Jai completed a Master of Public Policy from the University of Oxford.
Aniruddh Nigam
Aniruddh was a Senior Resident Fellow with the Legal Design and Regulation Team. His research interests lie at the intersection of law, technology and political economy, focusing on issues of platform governance and data protection. Aniruddh graduated from the National Law School, Bangalore in 2019. He has interned at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, Delhi, and was a Research Affiliate at the Quality of Governance project at IIM, Bangalore. In his spare time, he enjoys reading critical theory and playing video games.
Ameen Jauhar
Ameen was a Senior Resident Fellow at Vidhi, and led the Centre for Applied Law and Technology Research (ALTR). His interest and research focus lies in AI ethics, and the governance of AI. Within ALTR, he has been leading the team's collaborative research on data trusts, and artificial intelligence. Ameen has also worked on the intersection of technology and the justice system, as a senior fellow working on the JALDI mission's engagement with the Supreme Court of India's AI and E-Courts' committees.
Ameen has a formal educational background in social research methods and evidence-based policy. He completed his master’s programme from the Institute of Education (University College London), focusing on the use of research evidence in policy processes, and was awarded an MSc. with an overall distinction. Before this, he completed his undergraduate legal studies from the W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences [B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)] in 2012. Prior to Vidhi, Ameen worked at J. Sagar Associates, in the firm’s regulatory and policy team. He has practised in the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court, and numerous tribunals.