Hindi English Translation || Editorial || Too little, much later: on the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025

Too little, much later: on the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025

The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules undermine right to information

Over eight years have passed since the Supreme Court of India held privacy to be a fundamental right. In the interceding (मध्यस्थता करना) years, three separate drafts for a data protection law have been floated, with little visibility into how the final contours (बाहरी रूपरेखा) of the Act took shape. The 2023 law achieved simplification of the 2018 draft, with some important protections for user data baked into law. But this was at the cost of giving a wide berth for government organisations to handle the data of Indians, putting in place an anaemic Data Protection Board of India (DPBI), and cruelly amending the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, setting back major advances in transparency (पारदर्शिता) achieved over the last two decades. The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, notified on November 14, 2025, do little to repair the glaring (चकाचौंध) gaps and damage from the parent Act. In fact, they delay the implementation of practically all key protections to 2027, while implementing the dilution of the RTI Act immediately; public information officers are now authorised to decline any personal information except what is already required to be published by other laws — an all-too-thin slice of the pie for citizens seeking accountability (जवाबदेही) This is after the government dragged out a three-month consultation period for draft rules which were already delayed, and launched the final form in the heat of the day the Bihar Assembly election results were announced.

The delays to reach this point were unfortunate, in January, when the draft Rules were put out, and are inexcusable (अक्षम्य) now. Little has been changed in the Rules’ final form, and the 12-18 months of a compliance timeline, even for giants (विशालकाय) of the technology industry that have known about this framework well in advance, does not stand the test of good faith. The lack of independence of the institutional framework underpinning (To form a solid base or foundation for something) these equivocations (The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself) is particularly worrying: as an example of why, the DPBI will operate under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. A result of this is that the same government organisation courting big-ticket investments into India from the world’s main data guzzlers, firms such as Google, Amazon and Meta, will supervise the body investigating their future mishandling of the data of Indians. Firms handling the data of Indians have few reasons to be upset with Friday’s Rules, as they will have over a year to fully implement the document’s limited aspirations (आकांक्षा). But for the citizen seeking the aim in the Act and Rules’ title — privacy and accountability from public and private actors with whom sharing data has become an implicit (निहित) and unavoidable condition of modern digital existence — they will now find that their status quo largely continues: of being open books to the state and Big Tech, on the reflective (विचारशील) side of a mirror that hides what is behind it.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.Intercede (Verb)

Hindi Meaning – मध्यस्थता करना
English Meaning – To intervene on behalf of another; to act as a mediator in a dispute.

2.Contour (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – बाहरी रूपरेखा
English Meaning – An outline, especially one representing or bounding the shape or form of something; the shape or curve of the outline.

3.Transparency (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – पारदर्शिता
English Meaning – The condition of being transparent (allowing light to pass through); the condition of being easy to see or understand; honesty and openness.

4.Glare (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – चकाचौंध
English Meaning – A fierce or dazzling light; a fierce or angry stare; to shine brightly or fiercely.

5.Accountability (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – जवाबदेही
English Meaning – The fact or condition of being responsible to someone for something; the obligation to explain or justify one's actions.

6.Inexcusable (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning – अक्षम्य
English Meaning – Too bad to be justified or tolerated; unforgivable.

7.Giant (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – विशालकाय
English Meaning – An imaginary creature of vast size and human form; a very large and powerful person, organization, or thing.

8.Implicit (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning – निहित
English Meaning – Implied though not plainly expressed; absolute and unreserved (as in trust).

9.Reflective (Adjective)

Hindi Meaning – विचारशील
English Meaning – Relating to or resulting from serious thought; characterized by deep consideration; capable of reflecting light or heat.

10.Aspiration (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – आकांक्षा
English Meaning – A hope or ambition of achieving something; the action or process of drawing breath.

11.Equivocation (Noun)

English Meaning – The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself.

12.Underpine / Underpin (Verb)

English Meaning – To form a solid base or foundation for something.