The “Certified Indian Data Protection Professional” introduced by Cyber Law College envisages that professional working in India need to have a an Indian perspective when dealing with Data protection requirements. Presently, Privacy and Data Protection professionals are so focused on international regulations that they forget that there are Indian laws as well which should actually get a priority if there is a conflict.
India has Information Technology Act 2000 since 17th October 2000 which was substantially upgraded in 2008 (effective from 27th October 2009). The Section 43A and Section 79 rules were notified on 11th April 2011. All these regulations had provisions on Data Protection. Now we have the DISHA 2018 (proposed) and IDPA 2018 (Proposed) which will define the health Sector Privacy law and General Privacy Law.
The International laws such as HIPAA and GDPR are also relevant to India since Indian companies do process information that falls under the jurisdiction of such laws and have to comply by their provisions.
However, there is a need for Indian Data Protection Professionals to understand that international laws operate along with local laws and it is the responsibility of the organization exposed to overlapping laws to ensure that the conflicts if any are managed properly.
Cyber Law College was historically the first dedicated online education venture in India and took upon itself a mission to create a “Cyber Law Awareness movement” which was fairly successful. Cyber Law College extended its educational activities to online platform using Apnacourse.com and added the HIPAA course to its fold. Recently it also added the GDPR course to the online package.
When the IDPPA 2018 (Which Justice Srikrishna committee is expected to release as a draft soon) and the DISHA 2018 (which is already into advanced stage of drafting), Cyber Law College will include it as additional education assets. When all these are integrated into one Certification program, the student would be able to get an integrated view of the entire process.
Though at present, India does not have a Banking sector specific law, there are RBI regulations that itself constitute a Banking sector specific law.
The Certified Indian Data Protection Professional course will therefore cover the following segments.
a) Information Technology Act 2000/8
b) HIPAA-HITECH Act
c) GDPR
d) DISHA 2018 (When introduced)
e) IDPA 2018 (When introduced)
f) Indian Digital Banking Regulations
g) Miscellaneous Relevant Legal Provisions which includes Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act and also UK DPA etc.
Out of the three courses currently hosted on apnacourse.com platform in the form of Certified Cyber Law Professional, Certified HIPAA Aware Professional and Certified GDPR professional already cover a large part of the existing legal provisions that are relevant to an Indian Data Protection Professional.
Additionally, the “Privacy Knowledge Center” (www.privacy.ind.in), the GDPR Knowledge Center (www.gdpr.ind.in) along with naavi.org and ita2008.in provide substantial material for study by the students.
Cyber Law College therefore now proposes to launch an integrated Certification program which tests and certifies the knowledge of professionals in the Data Protection domain in India through an online examination which would be conducted at periodical intervals.
Like many other initiatives, this will be a pioneering introduction to the Indian Data Protection domain.
I hope in due course this certification will gain the recognition of the industry. I look forward to the support and cooperation of all my friends in the industry.
I also intend to offer this Certification program as a support to generate revenue that can be directly applied to the cause of Data Protection Professionals in India for which the modalities are being worked out and details would be made public in due course.
Suggestions if any are welcome.
Naavi