The eagerly-awaited Data Protection Act, which is been in discussion for the last one year, is soon likely to come into a shape.

The high-level committee that is drafting the framework met on Wednesday, which was the last of the meetings before submitting the report to the government. The meeting lasted for more than two hours.

Sources closed to the meeting said the report is expected to be submitted by the first week of August, and update changes in the existing legislations in areas such as Aadhaar, Right to Information (RTI) and health.

The panel headed by Justice BN Srikrishna discussed various aspects, including data localisation, classification of sensitive personal data and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) recent recommendations on data privacy and ownership for telcos, sources said.

While Justice Srikrishna declined to comment, some of the committee members said that “vast issues” were discussed and once the report is submitted to the government, they would put it on public domain for comments.

The committee is headed by Justice Srikrishna, who is a former Supreme Court Judge.

When asked if the India data protection framework will be similar to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a source told BusinessLine that “India is different from any other country and we have to make our framework.” Having said that the official also said that some of the guidelines could a bit similar to world standards.

The GDPR has also come into effect from May 25.

One of the members also said that TRAI’s recommendations on data ownership, security and privacy, issued last week, also figured in the discussion.

The government had constituted the 10-member committee in July last year to recommend a framework for securing personal data as with the increase in the smartphone users and digitised economy, privacy concerns have also in the rise so that data breaches do not happen.

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