India’s parliament deals with data security fears

Aiming to quell concern from Western users of outsourcing services, India is likely to have a tighter data protection and privacy regime in place later this year. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) in Delhi is confident that new measures will be passed as law in the coming session of India’s parliament, said Kiran Karnik, president of NASSCOM, which is working closely with the government on the new rules. India’s elections for a new federal government started in April, and the new parliament, expected to take up the new legislation for data protection, will be installed by Aug. 6. The Indian government is under increasing pressure, from business process outsourcing operations and call centers in India that handle large volumes of data from the U.S. and Europe, to pass a data protection law. Opponents of offshore outsourcing to India have often cited the absence of a data protection and privacy law in India as a strong reason for stopping the movement of call centre and business process work to the country.