‘Plug glitches in data bill’
The draft Bill suggests steps to safeguard personal information.
America and Indian Americans got a glimpse of India’s soft power and rich musical heritage as Zila Khan, a leading Sufi singer and daughter of sitar maestro, the late Ustad Vilayat Khan, mesmerised the lovers of Indian music at Washington DC, New York and Houston in the past one week.
Khan was in the United States for her performances at these Indian-American dominated cities as part of India@ 70 celebrations to mark India’s Independence Day in the US. She mesmerised the crowds at the Georgetown University in Washington DC, where the Indian Embassy had organised the concert and again at Asia Society’s event in NYC and then in Houston.
It was a week of soaking into melodies and going to the rich musical roots of India for many Indian Americans, as the Kolkata-born Zila Khan, an inheritor of strong musical roots, turned out to be a revelation. Zila strongly believes that culture connects countries and people across continents. “Culture is such an important bridge for every kind of country to be tied together. We all feel that politics and economy can change, but culture is one thing that remains the same. It is built on a very, very solid foundation, which stays and sustains itself,” she said during the concert at the Georgetown University.
Praising her musical roots and her passion for Sufi music, India’s Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna said: “She lives her music and she gives it all her heart. Music is in her blood.”
Zila passionately argues that “it is important to feel that (culture) in your music”. Elaborating her point, she said while she has musicians from across the world—the US, Egypt, Africa, and European nations—to play with her, but she keeps the “fabric of Indian Sufi music intact”.
She credited her father for the success and fame she has got today. “He not only trained me, but also changed the family tradition that did not allow women to perform…” He (Ustad Vilayat Khan) honed my skills. He made me do the riyaz daily for 12 to 16 hours sometimes.”
Zila, who is today famous for her command over various music styles, added, “I feel very privileged that I had a mentor and a guru who could show me my brilliance.”
Sarna has only praise for Zila: “She has sort of made music her life… It is not just the Sufi music which you hear, if you actually explore Zila Khan’s repertoire, there is ghazal, fusion, jazz and experimental music.” The Indian Ambassador didn’t forget to add that he’d first heard the acclaimed Sufi singer at the Jahan-e-Khusrau festival at Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi.
Zila, who is a regular performer at Indian and international music festivals, including at the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Symphony Space, Broadway and Trafalgar Square in London, signed off with a wish: “If I can leave 15-20 students, singers, performers, instrumentalists like me and better, who would perform and spread Indian cultural heritage globally, I think my journey and my life would be quite complete.” Maneesh Pandey is Senior Executive Editor with the ITV Network and currently a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Delaware State University, USA.
Cyber experts and lawmakers have pointed out anomalies and contradictions in the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, and called for more detailed discussion with stakeholders before bringing it up in the upcoming winter session of Parliament.
The government is hopeful of introducing the Bill in the winter session. The Bill was drafted by a high-level committee headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna. Following the submission of the draft Bill and data protection report in July, the IT Ministry sought public feedback by 30 September.
The draft Bill suggests steps for safeguarding personal information, defining obligations of data processors as also rights of individ- uals and proposed penalties for violations. It also seeks “explicit consent” for processing sensitive personal information like religious or political beliefs, sexual orientation and biometric details. However, experts and lawmakers feel there are several loopholes in the Bill which need to be addressed before it is tabled in Parliament.
For example, there are restrictions on cross-border data transfers, which may have far-reaching implications on India as an internet market. As per the draft Bill, certain categories of data will be stored in data centres located within India. These categories will be notified by the Data Protection Authority at a later stage. This may create a barrier to market entry.
Moreover, the Bill requires contractual and inter-group cross- border transfer arrangements to be approved by the Authority, which may harm the ease of doing business. According to Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, these restrictions appear to be motivated only to facilitate law enforcement and security agencies access data and do not lead to any meaningful bolstering of privacy rights while it can be argued that the impact of such restrictions is also farreaching and disproportionate to the benefits.
“The restrictions on crossborder data transfers have the potential to create a case for isolating the Indian market. It is highly likely that countries such as the United States, under the Trump administration, will respond kindly, in line with its terse stance on free trade. The great dividends of efficiency created by the internet will be lost to these measures that fragment it,” he said.
In his letter to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Chandrasekhar said that rushing it to the upcoming winter session of Parliament will be counter-productive as it is ill-planned and has widereaching implications.
Cyber expert Anupam Saraf said the Srikrishna Committee draft Bill on data protection is flawed to enable a data protection regime. “Data protection is about ensuring the fidelity of the data available to transacting parties and the regulator of transactions. It is about protecting transacting parties from third parties who have nothing to do with the transactions from gaining access, control or rights to the data. It is incorrect to treat transacting parties as ‘data subjects’ whose data can be exploited by third parties, or data fiduciaries. The approach of creating data fiduciaries will not only damage commerce and the economy, it will erode trust as it will be impossible to distinguish genuine data from fraudulently generated data,” he said.
Saraf said commerce grows when the data is protected from being fraudulently generated, when genuine versions can be distinguished from fake versions by certification by the transacting parties and when a regulator can audit the generation, certification and restriction of the data beyond the transacting parties.
“The mess caused by Aadhaar is an example of data generated by third parties who are not part of transactions that require the data and such data is indistinguishable from genuine data as it is not generated or certified by transacting parties,” he said.