Daily Analysis of 'The Hindu' - 7th February, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


For a data firewall
?German cybersecurity firm: medical details of
millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely
available on the Internet.
?Reason for the availability: absence of any security in
the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems
(PACS) servers used by medical professionals and
which seem to have been connected to the public
Internet without protection.
?Public data leaks have been quite common in India.
?India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to
protect data privacy.
Page 2


For a data firewall
?German cybersecurity firm: medical details of
millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely
available on the Internet.
?Reason for the availability: absence of any security in
the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems
(PACS) servers used by medical professionals and
which seem to have been connected to the public
Internet without protection.
?Public data leaks have been quite common in India.
?India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to
protect data privacy.
?The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is
still to be tabled but could enable protection of
privacy.
?The draft Bill follows up on the provisions
submitted by a committee of experts chaired by
Justice B.N. Srikrishna to the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology in 2018.
?The committee sought to codify the relationship
between individuals and firms/state institutions as
one between “data principals ” (whose information
is collected) and “data fiduciaries ” (those
processing the data) so that privacy is safeguarded
by design.
Page 3


For a data firewall
?German cybersecurity firm: medical details of
millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely
available on the Internet.
?Reason for the availability: absence of any security in
the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems
(PACS) servers used by medical professionals and
which seem to have been connected to the public
Internet without protection.
?Public data leaks have been quite common in India.
?India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to
protect data privacy.
?The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is
still to be tabled but could enable protection of
privacy.
?The draft Bill follows up on the provisions
submitted by a committee of experts chaired by
Justice B.N. Srikrishna to the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology in 2018.
?The committee sought to codify the relationship
between individuals and firms/state institutions as
one between “data principals ” (whose information
is collected) and “data fiduciaries ” (those
processing the data) so that privacy is safeguarded
by design.
?Bill tasks the fiduciary to seek the consent in a
free, informed, specific, clear form (and which is
capable of being withdrawn later) from the
principal.
?SADLY: it has removed the proviso from the 2018
version of the Bill that said selling or transferring
sensitive personal data by the fiduciary to a third
party is an offence.
?State institutions are granted exemption from
seeking consent from principals to process or
obtain their information.
?A comprehensive Data Protection Act is the need
of the hour.
Page 4


For a data firewall
?German cybersecurity firm: medical details of
millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely
available on the Internet.
?Reason for the availability: absence of any security in
the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems
(PACS) servers used by medical professionals and
which seem to have been connected to the public
Internet without protection.
?Public data leaks have been quite common in India.
?India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to
protect data privacy.
?The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is
still to be tabled but could enable protection of
privacy.
?The draft Bill follows up on the provisions
submitted by a committee of experts chaired by
Justice B.N. Srikrishna to the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology in 2018.
?The committee sought to codify the relationship
between individuals and firms/state institutions as
one between “data principals ” (whose information
is collected) and “data fiduciaries ” (those
processing the data) so that privacy is safeguarded
by design.
?Bill tasks the fiduciary to seek the consent in a
free, informed, specific, clear form (and which is
capable of being withdrawn later) from the
principal.
?SADLY: it has removed the proviso from the 2018
version of the Bill that said selling or transferring
sensitive personal data by the fiduciary to a third
party is an offence.
?State institutions are granted exemption from
seeking consent from principals to process or
obtain their information.
?A comprehensive Data Protection Act is the need
of the hour.
Complicating the tax regime further
?Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the
longest Budget speech in the history of independent
India.
?Ms. Sitharaman announced what she claimed was a
move to provide significant relief to individual
taxpayers by simplifying the income tax law.
?The relief, she said, will be in the form of lower tax
rates for which individuals will have to give up on the
exemptions they enjoy under the existing regime.
?The simplification of the income tax law, the Finance
Minister said, will benefit both the assessees and the
assessors.
Page 5


For a data firewall
?German cybersecurity firm: medical details of
millions of Indian patients were leaked and are freely
available on the Internet.
?Reason for the availability: absence of any security in
the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems
(PACS) servers used by medical professionals and
which seem to have been connected to the public
Internet without protection.
?Public data leaks have been quite common in India.
?India lacks a comprehensive legal framework to
protect data privacy.
?The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is
still to be tabled but could enable protection of
privacy.
?The draft Bill follows up on the provisions
submitted by a committee of experts chaired by
Justice B.N. Srikrishna to the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology in 2018.
?The committee sought to codify the relationship
between individuals and firms/state institutions as
one between “data principals ” (whose information
is collected) and “data fiduciaries ” (those
processing the data) so that privacy is safeguarded
by design.
?Bill tasks the fiduciary to seek the consent in a
free, informed, specific, clear form (and which is
capable of being withdrawn later) from the
principal.
?SADLY: it has removed the proviso from the 2018
version of the Bill that said selling or transferring
sensitive personal data by the fiduciary to a third
party is an offence.
?State institutions are granted exemption from
seeking consent from principals to process or
obtain their information.
?A comprehensive Data Protection Act is the need
of the hour.
Complicating the tax regime further
?Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the
longest Budget speech in the history of independent
India.
?Ms. Sitharaman announced what she claimed was a
move to provide significant relief to individual
taxpayers by simplifying the income tax law.
?The relief, she said, will be in the form of lower tax
rates for which individuals will have to give up on the
exemptions they enjoy under the existing regime.
?The simplification of the income tax law, the Finance
Minister said, will benefit both the assessees and the
assessors.
?In essence, the government decided to give a
small section of taxpayers an opportunity to
pocket more money, in the process hoping that
they will give up on their savings instruments
such as the Public Provident Fund and various life
insurance products, and also abandon their
investment in what in India is viewed as a safe
haven asset — real estate.
?Does the new tax regime really put more money
into the hands of taxpayers?
?What FinMin delivered leaves taxpayers with
double the amount of work — they now also have
to compare the two systems and make a decision
on which one is more favourable for them.
It is ironic that the 
government, while 
disincentivising
investment in 
insurance on the one 
hand, is also 
attempting to publicly 
sell stakes in India ’s 
largest insurance 
provider on the other 
hand.