The commerce ministry will move forward with the proposed e-commerce policy without waiting for Parliament to ratify the personal data protection bill.

An earlier version of the draft e-commerce policy, which proposed data requirements and was disclosed in 2008, was scrapped after significant business opposition. The commerce ministry was said to have plans to introduce legislation to limit the creation of digital monopolies and facilitate e-commerce exports.

The proposed e-commerce policy differs from the draft guidelines for e-commerce platforms that the buyer affairs ministry recently announced as part of the client safety legislative guidelines. Small businesses claimed that online marketplaces were abusing their market dominance and resorting to extreme discounting, prompting the creation of these principles. The foundations propose, among other things, that e-commerce corporations limit so-called 'flash sales' of products and services by prohibiting back-to-back sales that limit buyer choice, raise costs, and eliminate a stage playing space.

The most recent version is intended to focus on e-commerce regulatory aspects, such as foreign direct investment policy and a potential local regulator, as well as India's international position on e-commerce negotiations.

Last month, commerce minister Piyush Goyal, who is also in charge of the buyer affairs ministry, claimed that the e-commerce policy will be revealed only when the draft e-commerce guidelines are finalized. The commerce ministry informed Parliament that the federal government had prepared a draft national e-commerce policy and circulated it for inter-ministerial discussion.

A 10-member expert panel, led by former Supreme Court nominated B.N. Srikrishna, who submitted the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, recommended establishing a knowledge safety authority and imposing restrictions on cross-border information flows. The bill demands the storage of a single serving copy of all private information within India. It allows the central government to classify any sensitive private information as critical private information and requires that it be stored and processed entirely in India.

The proposed private knowledge safety bill is currently being investigated by a joint parliamentary committee. After a number of previous members, including chairman Meenakshi Lekhi, left to join the Union cabinet, five new members have joined the committee.

“Following extensive public consultations, a draft of nationwide e-commerce coverage has been prepared. Many parties have contributed valuable ideas. Inter-ministerial deliberations are being done to complete the nationwide e-commerce policy”, says Som Parkash, junior commerce minister.

The policy will also avoid the contentious knowledge localization criteria, which will be handled separately by the Reserve Bank of India and the bill currently before Parliament.