India's Proposed Policy for E-commerce Wants Data Localisation And Measures to Combat Products

The proposed overhaul, which would likely increase operating costs for sector, comes two months after the country modified regulations governing foreign direct investment in e-commerce. Amazon.com Inc & Walmart-owned Flipkart to restructure their Indian operations, and the latest reforms spell upheaval. It focusing on data localisation, improved privacy safeguards & measures to combat the sale.

The government of India has outlined a new draft policy for its burgeoning e-commerce sector, focusing on data localisation, improved privacy safeguards and measures to combat the sale of counterfeit products. The proposed overhaul, which would likely increase operating costs for the sector, comes two months after the country modified regulations governing foreign direct investment in e-commerce. That forced retail giants Amazon.com Inc and Walmart-owned Flipkart to restructure their Indian operations, and the latest reforms spell further upheaval.

“In the future, economic activity is likely to follow data,” the draft policy document said. “It is hence vital that we retain control of data to ensure job creation within India”. The new rules call for the housing of more data centres and server farms locally, amid a broader push for data localization by the South Asian nation, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing online markets.