India will examine concerns raised by foreign technology companies around stringent rules to store data locally, the government said on Tuesday, an issue that has upset firms such as Mastercard and also irked the U.S. government.
The central bank representative who attended the meeting “assured the industry representatives that the Reserve Bank of India will look into this,” a statement by the commerce ministry said. India wants more stringent data storage rules so it can better access data and conduct investigations when the need arises. Technology companies argue the rules would force them to change their business models, hurt planned investments and raise costs.
Technology companies on Monday requested minister Goyal to ensure the law should have more clarity around data classification and he assured them that the IT ministry would address those concerns, the government statement said.