Introduction
Just as there has been an exponential spurt in awareness
regarding the sanctity of personal data and the need to safeguard
its privacy, there has also been the development, in parallel, of a
philosophy that data is a national resource that should be
exploited for the welfare of the society. Even as the Ministry of
Electronics & Information Technology
("MeitY") has focussed on the regulation
and protection of personal data, it has also been pushing ahead
with plans to devise a framework for the regulation of non-personal
data ("NPD"), which will be in parallel
to the proposed Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019
("PDP Bill"). Towards this end, in
September 2019, MeitY constituted a committee of experts
("CoE") which on July 12, 2020 released
its report ("Report") for public
consultation, seeking feedback from the public on a proposed
statute ("NPD Law") that will regulate
the use of NPD for public welfare and the greater good and that
will create an
