NEW DELHI: A group of industry associations representing some of the world’s largest technology corporations has written to the Union government expressing concern over the impact of certain provisions in India’s draft data protection Bill , in a combined bid to ratchet up pressure over a contentious issue.The proposed Bill, which is expected to be presented in the winter session of Parliament and contains provisions to mandate Internet firms to store certain types of data within the country, would impact the ability of global technology companies to do business in India, raise costs by 30-60% and not guarantee data security, the group of ten claimed.In a letter to minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad last week, the group requested that the “forced localisation requirements” be removed from the draft Bill. The letter, reviewed by ET, was signed by associations including The United States Chamber of Commerce, United States-India Business Council (USIBC), Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association ( JEITA ) and DIGITAL EUROPE. Global technology giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Canon, Fujitsu, Uber and Nokia are members of these associations.“We believe that once India develops strong privacy protections through a data privacy law with legal conditions for crossborder transfers — such as globally recognised transfer mechanisms like standard contractual clause — then data do not need to be localised,” said the grouping, which claims to represent a “wide range of global companies that are deeply invested in India and have a great interest in the future of the free flow of data across India’s borders”.“Data localisation requirements in the draft (Bill) will have significant negative effects on the ability of companies to do business in India, do not serve to further privacy protection, and are likely to undermine the security of Indian citizens’ data,” the letter said.ACT, The App Association, Allied for Startups , American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham Taipei), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and Japan Information Technology Services Industry Association (JISA) have also joined in the appeal to the minister.The proposed Bill, submitted by the Justice Srikrishna committee in July, had recommended that while one copy of all personal data has to be stored in India, critical personal data — to be defined by the government — will be stored only in India. This particular recommendation has been the subject of much criticism, especially from foreign technology companies which have called it restrictive.The Union government is currently engaged in public consultations over the draft Bill. The deadline for receiving feedback on the draft has been extended to October 10. Separately, the Reserve Bank of India has set a deadline of October 15 for payments companies to comply with regulations requiring them to store all data of Indian users within the country.Global industry associations are of the view that startups will also be hurt by the provisions of the proposed Bill. “Data localisation or mirroring requirements will impact startups first. Instead of investing in company growth and hiring bright developers, entrepreneurs in India will have to pay more for data storage and management than their international competition,” said Lenard Koschwitz, director, European Affairs, Allied for Startups.“Startups are born global and cross-border data flows should come naturally with their growth. The ability of India’s entrepreneurs to choose the best and most secure cloud infrastructure — irrespective of physical location — will be a crucial element to their success,” he added.India-based payments companies hold a different view, with industry leaders including Paytm and PhonePe seeking data localisation, arguing in favour of citizen privacy and saying they don’t see any downside to it. Not just foreign companies, even India’s newest state Telangana — which is a hub of technology and Internet firms and is the second-highest contributor to IT exports — has red-flagged the data localisation clause in the Bill fearing it will isolate Indian startups and hurt investments in the state and the country, ET had reported last month.Sangeeta Gupta, chief strategy officer of Nasscom , said, “Almost every business and every association has been making its recommendations on this front and this collective call surely helps further. I am sure that the government by now has a full understanding of what is the general view of the businesses on data localisation. What is more important now is to get the finer details of the data protection Bill and also know the timelines on when it is likely to be finalised and tabled in Parliament.”A spokesperson for USIBC told ET that since the deadline for stakeholders’ comments has been extended to October 10, “hence, as of now we do not have anything new to comment on this”. In response to an earlier query by ET, Nisha Biswal, president of USIBC, had said the organisation is concerned that recent draft policies under discussion would call for forced localisation and other measures that restrict data flows. “These policies, if adopted, will neither enhance privacy nor security, and will ultimately reduce trade, investment and technology exchange between our nations,” Biswal had said.