DPDP Bill 2023 A Comparative Analysis
Introduction
THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2022 Released for Public Consultation on November 18, 2022THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2023Tabled at LokSabha on August 03. 2023Personal data may be processed only for a lawful purpose for which an individual has given consent. Consent may be deemed in certain cases.The 2023 bill imposes reasonable obligations on data fiduciaries and data processors to safeguard digital personal data.There is a Data Protection Board under the 2022 bill to deal with the non-compliance of the Act.Under the 2023 bill, there is the Establishment of a new Data Protection Board which will ensure compliance, remedies and penalties.
Under the new bill, the Board has been entrusted with the power of a civil court, such as the power to take cognisance in response to personal data breaches, investigate complaints, imposing penalties. Additionally, the Board can issue directions to ensure compliance with the act.The 2022 Bill grants certain rights to individuals, such as the right to obtain information, seek correction and erasure, and grievance redressal.The 2023 bill also grants More Rights to Individuals and establishes a balance between user protection and growing innovations. The bill creates a transparent and accountable data governance framework by giving more rights to individuals. In the 2023 bill, there is an Incorporation of Business-friendly provisions by removing criminal penalties for non-compliance and facilitating international data transfers.
The new 2023 bill balances out fundamental privacy rights and puts reasonable limitations on those rights.Under the 2022 bill, Personal data can be processed for a lawful purpose for which an individual has given his consent. And there was a concept of deemed consent.The new data protection board will carefully examine the instance of non-compliance by imposing penalties on non-compiler.The bill does not provide any express clarity in regards to compensation to be granted to the Data Principal in case of a Data Breach.Under 2023 Deemed consent is there in its new form as ‘Legitimate Users’.The 2022 bill allowed the transfer of personal data to locations notified by the government.There is an introduction of the negative list, which restricts cross-data transfer.
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Introduction
Picture every paper trade document, such as bills of lading, certificates of origin, letters of credit, and packing lists, stacked one on top of another. By one industry estimate, the roughly four billion such documents in circulation each year would form a tower over 500 kilometres high, well past the edge of space. This absurd image reflects a simple truth, global trade has relied on paper for centuries, making transactions slow, expensive, and vulnerable to loss, forgery, and disputes.
Today, however, we complete many activities that once depended on paper through digital platforms. We open bank accounts through mobile applications, sign contracts electronically, file taxes online, and access government services through websites, all without handling a single physical document. Global trade is now undergoing a similar transformation. Yet, as trade moves online, the challenge is no longer managing stacks of paper, but protecting digital trade from cyber threats. The success of this transition will therefore depend as much on robust cybersecurity as on the adoption of digital technologies.
From Paper Trails to Platforms
For decades, an Indian exporter clearing a container needed physical stamps from customs, port authorities, banks, and multiple regulatory agencies, each on its own timeline. That has been changing under India's National Trade Facilitation Action Plan, now in its third iteration (NTFAP 3.0, 2024–27), which set out to close the remaining gaps in paperless trading systems. The shift shows up in international benchmarks: India's score on the UN's Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation has climbed sharply, with the institutional-cooperation component alone improving from under 67% to nearly 89% in recent rounds. A 2026 policy brief jointly released by ICRIER, RIS, and the Centre for WTO Studies concludes that India has achieved full implementation of domestic paperless trade measures, a rare distinction globally even as cross-border digitalisation continues to deepen.
The Building Blocks: ICEGATE to BharatTradeNet
This transformation rests on a stack of interlocking platforms. ICEGATE, the customs electronic data-interchange gateway, lets traders file declarations digitally rather than in person. SWIFT, the Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade, connects multiple regulatory agencies so a trader deals with one portal instead of dozens. e-SANCHIT digitises supporting documents for customs clearance, cutting paperwork once attached to every consignment. Faceless assessment, rolled out under the CBIC's "Turant Customs" push, separates the assessing officer from the physical location of the goods, reducing scope for delay and discretion. The newest addition, BharatTradeNet, announced in the Union Budget 2025-26, is unified digital public infrastructure linking DGFT, GSTN, banks, shipping lines, and exporters on one platform for trade documentation and financing built to complement the Unified Logistics Interface Platform and align with international conventions.
None of this works without a legal backbone. India's proposed Trade Facilitation Bill aims to give electronic trade documents the same legal standing as paper ones, closing an interoperability gap that has long complicated cross-border recognition of digital records. Recent trade agreements have also begun embedding firmer commitments on paperless trade, a sign that digitalisation is no longer a back-office IT project but a live item in trade diplomacy.
What's at Stake Economically
The economic case is straightforward: paper costs money and time. Digitised customs and documentation shrink dwell times at ports, cut transaction costs, and reduce the discretion-driven delays that disproportionately hurt smaller firms. That matters for India's MSMEs, whose export contribution has grown from roughly ₹3.95 lakh crore to ₹12.39 lakh crore in recent years, aided by platforms such as the Government e-Marketplace and ONDC, which together have onboarded well over a million sellers. Electronics exports touched a record $47 billion in 2025, helped along by production-linked incentives and smoother compliance. With India's total merchandise exports crossing $714 billion in the first ten months of FY 2025-26, the efficiency gains from digitalisation compound across an ever-larger base and help Indian firms plug into global value chains that increasingly expect real-time, verifiable documentation rather than faxed certificates.
India's Regional Moment
Beyond its own backyard, India has regional aspirations. Following deliberations at the Asia-Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum and Paperless Trade Week 2026 in Bangkok last May, international experts were of the opinion that most of the necessary digital and regulatory infrastructure for India to join the UN Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (CPTA – a treaty-based and intended to make paperless trade globally, not just internationally, interoperable) had been laid in place. Joining CPTA will also allow India to have a say on digital trade frameworks in the region and thus be a game-changer in integrating SAARC, ASEAN and global supply chains together while reducing costs of trade.
The Cybersecurity Imperative
The catch is that every portal, system and API that takes the place of a paper stamp has the potential to become an attack vector. The increase in overall ransomware activity reached more than 50% worldwide in 2025, and supply-chain attacks almost doubled. These types of attacks hit manufacturing, now a key part of India's export basket, hardest of all industrial ransomware attacks.
The notorious NotPetya attack in 2017, which effectively brought Maersk's worldwide shipping operations to a halt and shut down container movement at Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port, serves as a painful reminder that the compromise of even a single system can bring physical cargo movement within a network to a standstill.
For a trade ecosystem running on digital trust, the nature of risks include: ransomware that immobilizes ports and customs systems, supply-chain attacks that leverage a single trusted service provider to get access to dozens of downstream clients, data theft revealing shipment and financial data, impostor fraud to trick people into assuming the identity of a banks or exporter, modification of digital bills of lading, certificates of origin or other essential trade documents. When an original physical document is misplaced, it has no effect on anyone but its keeper. A corrupted digital file, on the other hand, can be stealthily changed and propagate across every system it touches instantly.
Building Trust by Design
It is a prerequisite to digital commerce to have these systems so they can even be trusted. This means a zero-trust architecture where all users and devices are authenticated rather than just assumed to be safe once you cross an organisational boundary; transport-level encryption; digital signatures & PKI for crypto-validating shipping documents; identity & access controls ensuring access to shipment data is limited to authorised persons; and anomaly detection to alert on intrusions before the problems can snowball. India's legal & policy framework for cybersecurity is indeed evolving, with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (and its rules finalised Jan 2025) obligating data fiduciaries & stipulating breaches must be reported within 6 hours to CERT-In; the National Cyber Security Reference Framework provides a foundational blueprint for digital public infrastructure, all under the stewardship of the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre, which monitors systems vital for the functioning of commerce.
Conclusion
India's digitised trade infrastructure from ICEGATE and SWIFT to e-SANCHIT, BharatTradeNet, and faceless customs has effectively brought it into the running for the title of regional digital trade leader. However, the success of this transformation will ultimately be measured not by the number of digital platforms it deploys, but by the trust, security, and resilience of the ecosystem that supports them. As trade becomes increasingly digital, robust cybersecurity will remain the foundation for protecting commercial data, maintaining confidence among trading partners, and ensuring that India's digital trade ambitions translate into sustainable economic growth.
Sources
- Cyble — Ransomware Attacks and Supply Chain Threats in 2025
- Chambers and Partners — Cybersecurity 2026: India
- Drishti IAS — Key Cyberthreats India is Facing and Key Measures India has Adopted to Strengthen Cybersecurity
- Protium — MSME Export Contribution Has Grown from ₹3.95 Lakh Crore to ₹12.39 Lakh Crore
- IBEF — India's E-commerce Boom: Growth, Trends & Future Prospects
- News on Air — India Achieves Record Electronics Exports of $47 Billion in 2025
Executive Summary
A photograph circulating widely on social media has been falsely linked to the reported hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in May 2026. The image is being shared with claims that it shows a cameraman filming evacuation operations without wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), suggesting that the global health scare was staged. However, the claim is misleading. The viral image has no connection to the hantavirus outbreak or any real evacuation related to the incident. research found that the photograph actually originates from a Spanish military exercise conducted a year earlier.
Claim
A post on X dated May 13, 2026, shared the image with the caption, “Don’t be fooled! The #Hantavirus HOAX,” alleging that the evacuations were staged events filmed from a movie set. The image shows several individuals in full personal protective equipment (PPE) carrying a patient on a biocontainment stretcher across a dock in front of a large vessel. A cameraman, dressed in plain clothes, is seen descending a ramp connected to the ship while apparently recording the scene.
Fact Check
The image went viral across X, Threads and Instagram in multiple languages, with users claiming the hantavirus outbreak was a “hoax” or that evacuation operations were staged. These posts emerged as authorities were monitoring passengers aboard the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius and others potentially exposed to the virus following reports of an outbreak during its Atlantic voyage.
Health officials have repeatedly stressed that the overall public health risk from the Andes strain of hantavirus remains low. It is a rare rodent-borne virus and the only variant known to transmit between humans.
Reverse image search traced the photograph to the official website of the Port of Almería in Spain, where it was published in a May 7, 2025 article documenting an international maritime exercise involving the Spanish Navy and the health ministry.
The exercise simulated the arrival of a vessel carrying suspected Ebola cases. Ebola is a rare but highly lethal disease that can cause fever, bleeding and organ failure.
Conclusion
The viral claim is false. The photograph has no connection to the reported hantavirus outbreak. It is from a Spanish military exercise conducted in 2025 and is being falsely shared out of context.
Executive Summary
A video showing a massive explosion and fire at what appears to be a gas facility is being widely circulated on social media. In the footage, huge flames and thick smoke can be seen rising from the site, while workers and security personnel are seen running around in panic.
The video is being shared with the claim that it shows an attack on the South Pars natural gas field in Iran’s Bushehr province.
CyberPeace Research Wing’s research found the viral claim to be false. The research revealed that the video is not from a real incident but was created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is being circulated with a false narrative.
Claim
The viral video is being shared on social media with the claim that it shows an attack on energy facilities at the South Pars natural gas field in Iran’s Bushehr province.
Post Link:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DanX_iJIfTu/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted multiple keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. During the search, we did not find any credible news report or reliable source confirming that the video was related to any attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field.
In the next step of the research, we analysed the video using the AI detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter. The tool’s results indicated that the viral video was approximately 100% likely to be AI-generated.
For further verification, we also checked the video using another AI detection tool, DetectVideo AI. The analysis showed that the video had a 64% probability of being AI-generated.
Conclusion
Our research found that the viral claim is false. The video does not show any real attack on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field. The footage was found to be AI-generated and is being shared on social media with a misleading claim.
