India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill is a “clear, cogent and a thoughtful piece of work,” Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister of Britain and now, with Facebook, said today.
Speaking at a Carnegie India function today, he said the Bill had clarity and congratulated all those responsible for it and spoke about the “process of openness.”
Of course, the Bill was not written to please the west coast of the United States of America (Facebook would count as an organisation that is from that area) as it should not. For, it has been done for the benefit of the Indian people. But India has said, quite rightly, that it will craft legislation that is important for India, Clegg added.
The government, he said, has to regulate the online world and also, preserve the “ingenuity of the Internet.”
He said he was impressed that India has ensured the openness of data flow. A lot of IT firms believe governments don’t understand them. And a lot of governments think these firms are rapacious, Clegg, who called himself ‘a refugee from British and European politics’ said. It was important that technologists and politicians understood each other, he added.
