Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules 2025

 India has officially entered a new era of digital governance with the notification of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules 2025, bringing into effect India’s first full-fledged digital privacy law. The move operationalizes the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and introduces a comprehensive, consent-led, rights-based framework governing how organizations collect, process, store, and protect personal data.

Key provisions of the DPDP Rules 2025- Mandatory security safeguards for all Data Fiduciaries

Fiduciaries must implement strong, “reasonable” security controls to prevent breaches, including:Encryption, masking, obfuscation, or tokenization

• Strict access controls
• Continuous logging and monitoring
• One-year log retention
• Verified backup and continuity systems
• Mandatory security clauses in processor contracts

In case of a breach:Affected users must be informed immediately. The Data Protection Board must be notified within 72 hours. 

Strict parental consent for processing children’s data

• Mandatory verifiable parental consent for all data of children under 18.
• Verification must rely on reliable identity documents or Digital Locker-verified credentials.
• Exemptions apply for healthcare, safety, and education-related processing.

Read: https://www.india-briefing.com/news/dpdp-rules-2025-india-data-protection-law-compliance-40769.html/

Download: https://dpdpa.com/dpdparules.html

Compulsory Licensing of Trade Secrets

 The Law Commission (LC) recently released its report no. 289- “Trade Secret and Economic Espionage”. (Part 1, Part 2and Part 3). SpiceIP has posted on this , some points:

The LC report noted the failure of attempts to get companies to voluntarily license TS during COVID-19. As a result, it proposed a separate section in the Protection of Trade Secrets Act, 2024 (‘Draft Bill’) for CL of TS. Certain key features of the provision are- 

• The Government can issue CL for use of TS to third parties or the Government in a situation of public emergency which involves substantial public interest. 
• The recipient of the TS will be duty-bound to not disclose confidential information during or after the expiry of the license. 
• The Government can terminate the license after such a public emergency has ceased to exist. 

The LC has sought to balance the public interest with the interest of a licensor by narrowly construing ‘disclosure’ to mean disclosure only to a third party under strict obligations of confidentiality. It does not mandate public disclosure of the TS since the commercial value of the information derives from its secrecy. 

EFTA-India Free Trade Agreement and Patents Rules Amendment: Compromising Public Accountability and Transparency in the Indian Patent System

 Recently, India and a group of 4 European countries- Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland (EFTA) signed a Trade Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) on a variety of trade related issues, including intellectual property rights. Significantly, the agreement requires India to make substantive changes to its provision obligating a patent applicant to furnish information about their foreign applications corresponding to their application in India. 

 Weakening Section 8 risks patent quality, discourages accurate disclosure of information about the relevant foreign applications, harming consumers.

Hence, it is crucial for us to reconsider the patent rules, taking into account the altered circumstances brought about by the TEPA agreement, which introduces Section 25(1)(h) as an opposition ground and necessitates enabling an active implementation of Section 64(1)(m). Our recommendation is to amend Rule 12, to include a sworn affidavit that all foreign patent prosecutions and their statuses, as updated to the patent office, are conclusive and comprehensive to the best of the knowledge of inventors and right holders. A rule can be introduced, whereby giving false or suppressing information under the affidavit could attract unliquidated damages for loss of time and resources of the patent office. This will ensure that if the company was aware of certain foreign patent proceedings but failed to disclose them to the Patent Office, a mental element can be assumed through an affidavit by default.

It’s crucial to uphold the safety net established by the pioneers of our patent law to balance the rights of the holder with the public’s interests. This is especially vital as technology advances rapidly while the law struggles to keep up.

(source: spicyip- https://spicyip.com/2024/04/efta-india-free-trade-agreement-and-patents-rules-amendment-compromising-public-accountability-and-transparency-in-the-indian-patent-system.html

Indian patents 2022

 

WIPO released statistics for 2022.

Indian patent office received 77,068 applications, 38,551 from residents and 38,517 from non-residents, more than Germany, the UK, France, Russia Australia, and Canada but less than China, USA, Japan, and Korea. Patents in force are 1,28,663 with non-residents share at 81.60% and most of them are in force for more than 10 years,

Report: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-941-2023-en-world-intellectual-property-indicators-2023.pdf

INEX India 2023, Goa

 Indian Innovators Association started organizing International Innovation Fair since 2016 in association with global network partners. This year's event held in Goa attracted 100 Indian and global innovators. The yearbook 2023 was also released. Few glimpses:

Global Innovation Index- India card

 

The 2023 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) takes the pulse of global innovation trends against the background of an economic environment fraught with uncertainty. It reveals the ranking of this year’s most innovative economies in the world amongst 132 economies and localizes the top 100 science and technology innovation clusters.

India's rank is 40 and where does score better?

1. Entrepreneuship Policies and Culture- rank 13

2, Graduates and Science & Engineering- Rank 11

3. Global Corporate R&D Investors- Rank 13

4. QS University Ranking- Rank 22

5. Finance for startup and scale ups- Rank 9

6. Citable Documents H Index - Rank 20

7. Intangible asset Intensity- Rank 8

Draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP)

 National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) Consortium, set-up by the Prime Minister's Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council has released the draft national deep tech startup policy (NDTSP) for public consultation. 

The draft NDTSP aims to complement and add value to the existing Startup India programmes, by fostering a conducive ecosystem for deep tech startups to thrive and address their unique and complex challenges. The draft NDTSP captures various new policy instruments and suggests policy changes under the following themes:

1. Nurturing Research, Development & Innovation
2. Strengthening the Intellectual Property Regime
3. Facilitating Access to Funding
4. Enabling Shared Infrastructure and Resource Sharing
5. Creating Conducive Regulations, Standards, and Certifications
6. Attracting Human Resources & Initiating Capacity Building
7. Promoting Procurement & Adoption
8. Ensuring Policy & Program Interlinkages
9. Sustaining Deep Tech Startups

The draft NDSTP is available here.

We are preparing a response for this draft NDTSP. In this regard, we are requesting your feedback on this draft policy by August 31, 2023. 

Kindly write to garima@nasscom.in and tejasvi@nasscom.in. 

Can India come with scaled AI Generative Startup

The debate started with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman statement in a Q&A that India's AI Startup Potential "Totally Hopeless'. NASSCOM has come with this report to give current status on India startups in this space. 

Indian generative AI startup ecosystem has expanded rapidly since 2021, more than doubling in count, with over $475 Mn funding in the last 2 years. Majority of these Indian startups offer generative AI-native solutions, built in-house. However, a majority of them lack adequate funding. Unlocking the full potential of generative AI for India, and from India for the world, will not only require rigorous assessment of sustainable whitespace opportunities in various sectors, but will also require innovative thinking towardsinviting patient capital and facilitating compute capabilities at scale.

Indo-U.S. Global Challenge Institutes

 Earlier this year, AAU formed the Task Force on Expanding United States-India University Partnerships. The objective of the Task Force has been to specifically explore how the United States can work with institutions and institutional leaders in India to expand bilateral research and higher education partnerships as part of a pathway toward a strategic strengthening of the U.S.-India relationship.

Preliminary Recommendations

RECOMMENDATION #1: Establish New Joint U.S.-India Institutes to Address Societal and Scientific Grand Challenges.

RECOMMENDATION #2: Scale Up Student-Based Research Collaboration and Exchanges to Address Societal Challenges.

RECOMMENDATION #3: Expand Opportunities for Internships and Apprenticeships

RECOMMENDATION #4: Catalyze Collaborative Research with Targeted Faculty Support

 RECOMMENDATION #5: Broaden Participation in GIAN, VAJRA, and Other Existing Programs.

RECOMMENDATION #6: Host Indian Researchers at Core Facilities.

RECOMMENDATION #7: Accelerate Knowledge Transfer from Lab to Marketplace

RECOMMENDATION #8: Build the “Front Doors” with Coordinated Nationwide International Education Strategies in Both Countries

RECOMMENDATION #9: Surge Staffing Resources to Rapidly Process Visas Applications

Download- https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/AAU-Files/Education-Community-Impact/International-Partnerships/India%20Task%20Force%20Preliminary%20Report.pdf

Carbon Capture technologies- India report from NITI Aayog

 This report explains that CCUS will play an essential role in meeting India’s global commitments of reducing CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050 and achieving net zero by 2070.

Extract:

There are different categories and types of commercial-scale carbon capture technologies and their suitability or appropriateness for different applications/sectors depends on the typical CO2 gas stream composition: 

a. Chemical solvent-based CO2 capture technologies: preferred when dealing with gas streams that are lean in CO2 and have relatively lower pressures, such as flue gas streams from power plants, BF gases in steel plants, gas streams in refineries or chemicals plants. The cost and availability of steam is also a key factor as regenerating the solvent requires large quantities of steam. 

\b. Physical solvent-based CO2 capture technologies: these work well on gas streams with relatively higher CO2 concentration and pressure, such as pre-combustion capture in the case of gasification projects. 

c. Adsorption-based CO2 capture: suitable for gas streams with moderate to high pressure and moderate CO2 concentration such as SMR flue gas or BF gas. 

d. Cryogenic CO2 capture: preferred in cases where the cost of power is low. This technology can be applied for carbon capture from the PSA tail gas of Steam Methane Reforming Units (for producing H2 ) and provides a unique advantage of increasing the yield/recovery of hydrogen production from the same quantity of feedstock (natural gas).

Download report: 

https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2022-12/CCUS-Report.pdf

India releases Water Body census

 Highlights:

• The photograph of the water bodies along with the latitude and longitude was captured by a mobile app developed for this purpose.  
• 24,24,540 water bodies have been enumerated in the country, out of which 97.1% (23,55,055) are in rural areas and only 2.9% (69,485) are in urban areas. 
• 59.5% (14,42,993) of water bodies are ponds, followed by tanks (15.7%, i.e 3,81,805), reservoirs (12.1%, i.e 2,92,280), Water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams (9.3%, i.e 2,26,217), lakes (0.9%, i.e 22,361) and others (2.5%, i.e 58,884).
• West Bengal has highest number of ponds & reservoirs, whereas Andhra Pradesh has highest number of tanks, Tamil Nadu has highest number of lakes and Maharashtra is the leading state for water conservation scheme. 
• A major proportion of water bodies i.e., 83.7% (20,30,040) are in use whereas remaining 16.3% (3,94,500) are not in use on account of drying up, construction, siltation, destroyed beyond repair, salinity and other reasons. 
• Most of the water bodies are used in pisciculture, followed by irrigation, ground water recharge and domestic/drinking purpose. 

Read the report: https://cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s3a70dc40477bc2adceef4d2c90f47eb82/uploads/2023/04/2023040672.pdf

Indian Space Policy 2023

 The policy outlines scope for Non Government Entities:

NGEs would be encouraged to: 1. offer national and international space-based communication services, through self-owned or procured or leased GSO/NGSO communication satellites. 2. establish and operate ground facilities for space objects operations, such as TT&C Earth Stations and Satellite Control Centres (SCCs). 3. use Indian Orbital Resources and/or Non-Indian Orbital Resources to establish space objects for communication services over India and outside India. 4. make new ITU filings through the WPC/DOT to acquire Orbital Resources. NGEs are free to make ITU filings through non-Indian administrations also. 5. establish and operate remote sensing satellite systems within and outside India through selfowned or procured or leased satellites. 6. disseminate satellite-based remote sensing data, as well as applications based on such data, in India and/or outside. 7. develop and commercialise technologies and applications for enhancing and augmenting the satellite navigation, communication and remote-sensing developed and provided by the Government. 8. manufacture and operate space transportation systems, including launch vehicles, shuttles, etc., as well as design and develop reusable, recoverable and reconfigurable technologies and systems for space transportation. 9. establish and operate launch infrastructure. 10. develop space situational awareness capabilities for enhancing observation, modelling and analysis. 11. undertake research, innovation and technology development for long-term sustainability of space activities. 12. provide end-to-end services for safe operations and maintenance in space. 13. engage in the commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource. Any NGE engaged in such process shall be entitled to possess, own, transport, use, and sell any such asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law, including the international obligations of India. 14. undertake any other IN-SPACe prescribed commercial space activity. 

Source:https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/IndianSpacePolicy2023.pdf

 

Compendium of Technologies available for transfer from IIT Delhi

 

IIT Delhi has filed more than 100 patents each calendar year for the last 5 years in a row , the technology transfer set-up led by Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, IIT Delhi (FITT) strives to increase licensing deal flows.  In the recently held Industry Day at IIT Delhi, a compendium of IIT Delhi’s technologies was released. In the context that University technologies are generally early stage, this compilation by FITT captures 4 or higher TRL stuff. 

Some areas for Licensing

• Communication
• Environment
• Electric Vehicles
• Energy Management
• Healthcare
• Life Sciences
• Material Sciences
• Motors and Machines
• Power Generation and Disctribution
• Renewable Energy
• Smart Technologies
• Textiles

75 AI products developed in India by DRDO and DPSUs.

The Indian Defence industry is taking giant steps in transforming the armed forces into one of the most advanced in the world. The adoption of technology based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) will revolutionise the Indian Military. It also places India firmly in the huge defence product market. Government support and plans to modernize the military through AI is a result of years of groundwork. Bold policies, dedicated budgets, policy changes and the thrust towards indigenisation, have helped create an atmosphere of cutting-edge innovation and collaboration. This joint effort among industry both public and private, research organisations, academic institutions, start-ups and innovators has helped create many unique technological products based on AI in the areas of data, logistics, surveillance, weapons and many more. The introduction of autonomy in weapon systems, in ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), data management, can be a huge asset in stopping terrorism, installing counter-terrorism measures, protecting soldiers. In fact, AI in defence can change combat and conflict at the deepest levels. This book is a compendium of some stupendous products and stellar achievements in AI-based technologies in defence by individuals, companies and institutions towards catapulting the Indian defence industry into a major global force.

Read: https://www.ddpmod.gov.in/sites/default/files/ai.pdf

Australia-India ECTA (Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement)

 India unhappy with many Free Trade Agreements (FTA) it signed, walked out of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Australia is one of the 15 countries that signed RCEP. Now India signed separate bilateral agreement with Australia. Many of India's concerns appear to have been addressed in this ECTA.

SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES

        Where certification is required for trade in a product, the importing Party shall ensure that such certification is applied, in meeting its SPS objectives, only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health. The importing Party shall accept certificates issued by the competent authorities of the exporting Party that are in compliance with the regulatory requirements of the importing Party. Import checks, conducted in accordance with the importing Party’s laws, regulations, and sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, shall be based on the sanitary and phytosanitary risk associated with importations. The import checks shall be carried out in a manner that is least trade-restrictive and without undue delay.

TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE

        Where technical regulations are required and relevant international standards exist or their completion is imminent, each Party shall use them, or relevant parts of them, as a basis for its technical regulations except when such international standards or relevant parts would be an ineffective or inappropriate means for the fulfilment of the legitimate objectives pursued, for instance because of fundamental climatic or geographical factors or fundamental technological problems. Where a Party does not use such international standards, or their relevant parts, as a basis for its technical regulations and these may have a significant effect on its trade with the other Party, it shall, upon request of the other Party, explain the reasons therefore.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

       Each Party shall encourage the mutual recognition of the relevant qualifications, licensing or certification requirements, including in regulated or licensed occupations under various industry and business sectors. Each Party shall encourage its relevant bodies to organise or facilitate bilateral discussions on occupational skill sets and standards in specific regulated or licensed occupations, based on the request of the other Party. The Parties shall endeavour to work towards sharing of information on the skill shortage and skill sets desirable for those occupations.

Patents 2020

WIPO report analyzes IP activity around the globe. Drawing on 2020 filing, registration and renewals statistics from national and regional IP offices. India received 56,771 patent applications, ot of which 23,141 were from India, 10,478 from USA, 4826 from Japan, 3775 from China, 2682 from Korea and 2525 from Japan.Resident grants for India grew by 5.5% whereas that of non-residents grew at 6.3%. Non-Resident share of patents granted by Indian Patent Office were pegged at 81.1%. The situation was different for Industrial Designs where out of 12,793, resident applicants were 8962 and non-residents 3,831.India does not grant utility patents and is not a member of International Union for Protection of New Variety of Plants. Publishing industry data covered under Creative Economy do not have Indian data.

Diaspora philanthropy- case of Kamma NRIs

Sanam Roohi is a Marie Curie COFUND fellow at Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt, currently researching the transnationalisation of the Telangana movement. She defended her thesis ‘Giving Back: Diaspora Philanthropy and the Transnationalisation of Caste in Guntur (India)’ from the University of Amsterdam in December 2016. Her research outputs include publication of a few book chapters and articles in journals including Modern Asian Studies, International Political Sociology and Ethnic and Migration Studies, apart from a co-produced film on diaspora philanthropy. Excerpts from our PhD which primarily focusses on Kamma NRIs in USA.

Guntur district in southern India has been a site of substantial outward transnational mobility by educated professionals (especially doctors and engineers) from dominant caste groups, who started migrating to the USA and other countries in the 1960s. This pattern of high-skilled migration, which intensified in the 1990s, gave rise to a regional diaspora that remains culturally and materially rooted in the region of Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Materialising the dual experiences of belonging and uprooting, these transnational migrants started sending resources back home, in particular through ‘diaspora philanthropy’. Members of this regional diaspora started engaging in social development projects, especially from the 1990s, in the fields of education, health and rural development. The thesis is an attempt to understand how regional specificities – especially caste connections – have shaped diaspora philanthropy in this case, and how diaspora philanthropy in turn has defined or reconstituted a caste group – the Kammas – that has become transnational. Extensive fieldwork carried out in Coastal Andhra and the USA revealed that these philanthropic engagements have been primarily channeled through particularised caste and kinship networks and are usually directed to aid members of the donors’ own ‘community’ – helping this group transform itself from a regionally dominant (agrarian and business) community into an emergent transnational caste.

Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry

 Salient features:

• The first component relates to incentivising manufacturing of four major food product segments viz. Ready to Cook/ Ready to Eat (RTC/ RTE) foods, Processed Fruits & Vegetables, Marine Products, Mozzarella Cheese.
• Innovative/ Organic products of SMEs including Free Range -Eggs, Poultry Meat, Egg Products in these segments are also covered under above component.
• The selected applicant will be required to undertake investment, as quoted in their Application (Subject to the prescribed minimum) in Plant & Machinery in the first two years i.e., in 2021-22 & 2022-23.
• Investment made in 2020-21 also to be counted for meeting the mandated investment.
• Press release: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1708691

draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy for public comments before 25th January 2021

 GOI released draft draft Science, Technology and Innovation Policy on 1st January. Highlights:

Broad vision- To double the number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) researchers, Gross Dimestic Expenditture on R&D (GERD) and private sector contribution to the GERD every 5 years.

Open Data Policy for Publicly Funded Research: All data used in and generated from public-funded research will be available to everyone (larger scientific community and public) under FAIR3 (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) terms. Wherever applicable, exceptions will be made on grounds of privacy, national security and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

Transforming existing R&D institutions to research universities. This will foster better linkages between research and education and also enable effective utilization of research infrastructure.

Foreign MultiNational Companies (MNCs): Foreign MNCs play an integral role in boosting India’s economy. To gainfully measure and assess the contributions made by foreign MNCs in the STI financing landscape, innovative methods to capture them will be developed.

Boosting fiscal incentives for industries investing in STI through incremental R&D based tax incentives, tax credit for investing in facilities for commercialization, tax holidays, tax waivers, target-based tax incentive for specific domains, tax deduction, expatriate tax regimes, remodelling of patent box regime etc. There will be a reassessment of the possibility of reviving weighted deduction provisions (of expenditure incurred on in-house R&D).

Flexible mechanism for supplier development programmes for public procurement in all sectors (especially earmarked for Small & Medium Enterprises - SMEs and Start-ups).

Reassessment of regulatory control on STI landscape to promote innovative enterprises. It is recommended that the Central Government re-examine and widen the scope of R&D expenditure. Further, the government may determine the right mix of loan, equity and grants to assist Indian industries for technology up-gradation and commercialization. Further, to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in STI, reduction in corporate tax rates for foreign MNCs, fast track clearances, easing land acquisitions, adequate means for incorporating FDI etc. will be explored on a need basis.

To undertake efficient governing mechanisms for the STI funding landscape, a national STI Financing Authority will be created.

Modification/waiver of General Financial Rules, for large scale mission mode programmes and projects of national importance will be explored. A new model for funding, implementation and monitoring of such programmes will be developed, either as an overarching mechanism or through obtaining cabinet approvals in respect of individual programmes. In addition, certain GFRs will be required to be amended for funding of R&D projects to facilitate ease of doing research.

Commentary:

A great compilation of wish list. There is something for every stakeholder.  STI Financing Authority , modification/ waiver of GFR are radical proposals in Indian context.

Premature Deindustrialization, India and South Africa

 Dani Rodrik introduced the concept of Premature deindustrailisation. (https://drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu/files/dani-rodrik/files/premature_deindustrialization.pdf)

The term deindustrialization is used today to refer to the experience mainly of these advanced economies.In the United States manufacturing industries’ share of total employment has steadily fallen since the 1950s, coming down from around a quarter of the workforce to less than a tenth today.In Great Britain, at the other end of the spectrum, deindustrialization has been both more rapid and thorough. Manufacturing’s share of employment has fallen from a third in the 1970s to slightly above 10 % today, while real MVA (at 2005 prices) has declined from around a quarter of GDP to less than 15 %. Developing countries are turning into service economies without having gone through a proper experience of industrialization and this is called  “premature deindustrialization". Developed countries face unemployment deindustrialization without output deindustrialization.As developing countries opened up to trade, their manufacturing sectors were hit . Those without a strong comparative advantage in manufacturing became net importers of manufacturing, reversing a long process of import‐substitution.

Premature Deindustrialisation in India was studied by Sudip Chaudhuri. (Sudip Chaudhuri. Premature Deindustrialization in India and Re thinking the Role of Government. FMSH-WP-2015-91. 2015.)  In India , the share of manufacturing in GDP has stagnated around 15-16% since 1991. The share of manufacturing in GDP is 31% in Korea and 30% in China. Even Germany with much higher wage costs has a share of 21%. If domestic manufacturers are unable to withstand international competition and if domestic users start relying on imports, then what follows is not better utilization of existing capacities and greater efficiency but under utilization of existing capacities, decrease in production and rise in unemployment. Decay of existing industries which are unable to survive without protection does not automatically lead to the creation of new capacities in new industries.

Is sub-Saharan Africa deindustrializing is paper by Emmanuel B. Mensah (UNU MERIT working paper #2020-045. Important finding- East Africa is industrializing, whereas Southern Africa is the only region that seems to be deindustrializing.imports from both the North and South have negative effect on relative manufacturing employment suggesting that the competition effect is stronger than the spillover effect in the context of Africa. African countries can offset the negative effect through competition policies such as subsidies and local content laws that have minimum requirements for the procurement of locals and services, local employment opportunities, technology, and skill transfer, etc. Finally, as the results of the drivers show, promoting manufacturing exports is important for the industrial development of the continent.