DailyPost 762
INDIAN SMEs & GDPR
Indian big businesses have been making efforts to get GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant, the European Union’s Data Protection Law & presumably most of the companies have made the grade. The harsh penal provisions can put any company in the doldrums. The initial hiccups have now been sorted out and the new data regime has been put into operation.
Sorting out technical issues is always cost intensive and that is the main reason for having delayed the compliance which had a window of two years. The Indian small to medium enterprises seem to be still short on awareness and so is the case of start ups getting into the European market. The law does not differentiate between the size of the companies, and if personally indentifiable data of even one European citizen is compromised the company is liable to penal action. Legal action brings a company to disrepute and does not forebode well for the future of a small or medium enterprises.
Given the Indian scenario of compliance and having no great experience of the European market or Regulations, there is a subliminal feeling that it can be managed with. That is not going to happen. Instead, this has already become the gold standard and all data protection would be inclined to borrow from it. So, the only way out is build in the data protection essentials in the business. The comfort of big businesses of hiring consultants and initiating a capital & human resources intensive exercise cannot happen to SMEs given the frugal nature of their exitence.
Awareness of GDPR has certainly happened in the last few months and so has it’s inevitablility. The broad technical contours have also become clear. Cutting costs as much as possible for this data protection compliance is the challenge. The SMEs will find their solutions, some individually, some collectively as well. This churning would finally make them globally competitive is this arena. Slowly, this would become the norm.
GDPR COMPLIANT SMEs WILL HAVE A CLEAR CUT COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.
Sanjay Sahay