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in Focus
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MeitY
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Passage of Digital Personal Data Protection
Act 2023 |
On August 11, the Digital Personal
Data Protection Act received presidential
approval and was notified in the Gazette.
India now has a dedicated legal regime for
personal data protection and has shifted
away from the limited framework under
section 43A of the Information Technology
Act. The objective of this law is to
regulate the processing of digital personal
data for lawful purposes while recognising
individual rights.
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This Act is the final version of the earlier
draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill
that was released in November 2022 on which
we had submitted our feedback. The final Act
aligns with several of our suggestions
including: (a) greater flexibility on the
application of protections for children’s
data, (b) removing default data localisation
or mirroring requirements, (c) avoiding
whitelisting of countries for data
transfers.
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GST
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Submission highlighting issues faced by IT-
BPM and e-commerce industry |
We submitted suggestions on key issues being
faced by the Industry under GST to the
Department of Revenue and GST Council, which
are aimed at enabling growth and ease of
doing business for the industry. The
suggestions relate to levy of GST on
reimbursement of expense by Indian company
to its foreign parent company for issuance
of ESOPs, GST on use of IP granted by
overseas entity to its Indian entity for
captive consumption, denial of export status
in cases where export consideration is
realised in India in INR into Vostro
account, implementation of intermediary
circular, amongst others.
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REPRESENTATIONS
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DGFT
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Import licence requirement for laptops,
computers, tablets, servers |
We submitted feedback on August 24
requesting for clarification on
implementation of the recently notified
requirement of import licence for laptops,
tablets, computers etc. Our recommendations
include giving instructions to on ground
authorities clarifying that STPI and SEZ
units do not require an additional import
licence. We have also requested for
exempting data centre industry until
manufacturing capabilities in India are
developed, and to make import licencing
process more efficient.
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MoF
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Challenges faced by non-resident taxpayers
in mandatory e-filing of Form 10F |
We submitted feedback highlighting practical
challenges being faced by non-resident
taxpayers, whether or not having PAN in
e-filing Form 10F. We have requested the
government to do away with mandatory
electronic filing of Form 10F for NR
taxpayers who do not have PAN in India or
are not required to obtain PAN under Income
Tax Act, 1961. Alternatively, government
should allow filing of form 10F
electronically without creating a PAN-based
login ID on the e-filing portal of tax
department and permitting e-verification of
the same using OTP instead of DSC. |
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RBI
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Draft Circular on Arrangements with Card
Networks for issue of Debit, Credit and
Prepaid Cards |
We submitted feedback highlighting that: (a)
consumer choice is primarily a function of
benefits offered by a card, and not the
card-network, and (b) it is not feasible to
offer identical credit/debit cards on
multiple networks, as agreements between
banks and card networks depend on commercial
terms. Ultimately, we emphasised that better
consumer choice can be enabled by allowing
all credit cards to be used for all
use-cases.
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DPIIT, MOF
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Follow-on submission on enabling direct
listing of foreign headquartered Indian
start-ups in India |
We submitted a follow-on representation
highlighting global precents that allow for
direct listing of foreign companies, and the
regulations in India that need amendments to
allow for the same. We have also suggested
setting-up a taskforce to recommend measures
to make direct listing an attractive option
for Indian origin foreign start-ups.
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SEBI
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Draft Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience
Framework |
We submitted feedback highlighting the need
to: (a) align incident reporting
requirements with CERT-IN’s Cybersecurity
Directions, (b) revisit requirements for
data residency and (c) narrow the definition
of critical assets to focus on
business-critical systems. On August 23, we
also attended a meeting organised
by SEBI with regulated entities and service
providers to discuss the issue in detail.
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TRAI
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Consultation Paper on Regulatory Mechanism
for OTT Communication Services and Selective
Banning of OTT Services |
We submitted feedback highlighting that: (a)
any regulatory definition for all OTT
services will cover too broad a set of
entities to serve any regulatory purpose,
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selectively blocking of OTT services should
be avoided as this does not appear to be
practicable or technically feasible, (c) the
case for any new additional framework for
OTTs is not made out as they are already
subjected to various laws, including a
blocking regime, and (d) the government
should
examine reducing the regulatory burden on
TSPs instead.
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TRAI
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Consultation Paper on Encouraging Innovative
Technologies, Services, Use cases and
Business Models and through regulatory
sandbox in Digital Communication sector |
We submitted feedback highlighting the need
to (a) provide a list of positive and
negative indicators to bring clarity in
assessment of eligibility criteria; and (b)
allow foreign entities to apply to the
regulatory sandbox. For more information,
kindly write to policy@nasscom.in.
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DoCA
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Task force on Protecting Consumers from
Dark Patterns |
We submitted feedback highlighting the need
for ensuring that legitimate business
practices are not prohibited while
regulating dark patterns and suggesting
illustrations for a better understanding of
specific dark patterns. We also suggested
setting-up of a government-industry forum to
identify and analyse dark patterns, and
called for a public consultation for any
draft guidelines that may be put-in place.
For more information, kindly write to policy@nasscom.in
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DIALOGUE & DISCUSSION
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Maharashtra Government
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Awareness Session on e-commerce under GST
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We conducted an awareness session for more
than 50 Maharashtra government officials on
the business models of e-commerce companies
to enable greater efficiency in enforcement
of GST provisions. The session provided
insights into the operating model
of the e-commerce industry and types of
services received by sellers from an
e-commerce operator. Aspects related to GST
refunds, tax collection at source, etc. were
also
discussed in detail.
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Deep-tech start-ups
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Roundtable to discuss the draft National
Deep Tech Start-up Policy
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As part of Nasscom’s Deep Tech Confluence,
we conducted a roundtable discussion to
gather feedback on the draft National
Deep-tech start-up policy. Overall, the
discussion highlighted the need for
instituting a strong implementation plan for
the initiatives proposed in the draft
policy. For more information, kindly write
to policy@nasscom.in.
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Indian Banking Association
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Meeting to discuss the use of Special Rupee
Vostro Account mechanism
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We participated in a meeting to discuss
concerns related to the adoption of the
Special Rupee Vostro Account mechanism for
international transactions. We highlighted
that the acceptance of this mechanism
depends largely on the overseas party, and
that there is a need to raise more awareness
of this mechanism.
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Labour
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Engagement with Haryana Labour Department
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We are engaging with the Labour Department,
Government of Haryana on issues related to
facilitating ease of doing business for the
IT-BPM industry. For more information kindly
write to policy@nasscom.in.
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NEW & UPCOMING
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Office of Principal Scientific
Advisor
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Feedback on the Draft National
Deep-tech start-up policy |
The Office of Principal
Scientific Advisor to the
Government of India has released
a draft National Deep-tech
start-ups policy for public
consultation. The last date for
submitting feedback is September
15. We have requested the
Industry to provide inputs by
September 7.
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OTHER UPDATES
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Telangana Government
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Agricultural Data Management Framework, 2023
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On August 11, the Telangana Government
released the Agriculture Data Management
Framework 2023 which seeks to promote
collection, processing, and sharing of
agricultural data to support the development
of use-cases and applications for the
agricultural sector in a rights-respecting
manner. We had submitted feedback on the
draft version of this framework in August
2022; several of our suggestions have been
reflected in the final framework. |
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Parliament of India
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Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act,
2023
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The Jan Vishwas Act, 2023 was passed in
this monsoon session of the Parliament. It
amends 42 laws with the aim of improving
ease of doing business by decriminalising
certain offences and revising fines and
penalties. This includes changes made to the
Information Technology Act. In March 2023,
we had submitted
feedback on the proposed amendments to the
Information Technology Act to the
Parliamentary Joint Committee
examining the Bill. Our recommendation to
not take up the amendment to the definition
of "Appropriate Government" in this Bill, as
it does not pertain to decriminalisation,
has been reflected in the final Act. |
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List of Acronyms
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AI
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Artificial Intelligence
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CERT-IN
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Indian Computer Emergency Response Team
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DoCA
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Department of Consumer Affairs
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DSC
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Digital Signature Certificate
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DGFT
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Directorate General of Foreign Trade
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DPIIT
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Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal
Trade
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ESOP
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Employees Stock Option Plans
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GST
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Goods & Service Tax
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IBA
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Indian Banking Association
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IP
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Intellectual Property
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IT
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Information Technology
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IT Act
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Information Technology Act of 2000
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MEITY
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Ministry of Electronics & Information
Technology
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MOF
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Ministry of Finance
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OIDAR
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Online Information Database Access and Retrieval
services
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OTP
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One-Time Password
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OTT
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Over-The-Top
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PAN
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Permanent Account Number
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RBI
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Reserve Bank of India
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SEBI
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Securities Exchange Board of India
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SEZ
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Special Economic Zones
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STPI
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Software Technology Parks of India
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TSP
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Telecom Service Provider
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Copyright © 2023, nasscom |
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