Data protection bill detrimental to economy, says advocacy group

New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) While the government is in the process of devising institutional measures to protect consumers' personal data, an advocacy group has written to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad against the limited scope of the legislation in work, which, it said, will "harm the overall globalization of the economy" in the long run.

Consumer VOICE on Sunday said that though the move may seem right in the short run, it eventually will prove to be detrimental to the economy. 

The government had earlier this year brought out the draft of data protection bill, an effort towards defining the legal boundaries of the use of personal data and bringing the matter under legislature. 

"The bill in its current form will drastically hinder such progress and negatively impact consumer interests in garnering benefits of these global technological innovations, access to global best practices and options, economies of scale, knowledge base and opportunities," the advocacy group said in its letter to Prasad, who is also the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology. 

The bill, if passed in its present form, may even cause to wipe out nearly one per cent of the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) of the country, the letter said.

"An international report has quantified harm to Indian economy and states that the potential impact on India's GDP may be -0.8 per cent, domestic investments -1.4 per cent and the loss per worker may be equivalent to 11 per cent of the average monthly salary," it read. 

The letter said that restrictions on cross-border flow of data will have "far reaching negative consequences", as will the data localisation, which will deny the citizens the access of "innovative offerings".