In a significant step toward enhancing data privacy and compliance with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced an innovation challenge. The challenge invites startups and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to develop open-source consent management systems that will assist organizations in adhering to the provisions of the DPDP Act.
The winning solutions will be taken up by MeitY and made available as a digital public good. Furthermore, the government has confirmed that these solutions will be hosted on an online repository, accessible to the public. The government said in the guidelines for the challenge,
“One or more solutions will be hosted by MeitY on an online repository, which will be open for the public. It will act as a digital public good which can be downloaded and further worked upon by interested individuals/organizations.”
Need for Customizable and Affordable Consent Solutions
The government emphasized the importance of creating a customizable and affordable consent management solution. This solution should also be able to integrate easily into existing systems. It aims to make these solutions available in a ‘plug and play’ format. This will serve government departments, MSMEs, startups, and other organizations. The primary goal of this challenge is to standardize consent handling practices across India’s digital ecosystem.
The government announced Registrations are open till April 27, urging startups and MSMEs to participate and submit their solutions.
The solutions should focus on consent lifecycle management and DPDP Act compliance. They should also include multilingual support, a user notification management system, immutable audit logging, and secure multifactor authentication. These features are crucial to ensure that organizations can handle personal data properly. The DPDP Act mandates stringent data protection practices, and these features help in complying with those requirements.
Who Can Participate?
The challenge is open to Indian tech startups registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), MSMEs operating in the IT/software domain, and companies registered under the Companies Act and LLPs based in India with majority Indian ownership.
The challenge encourages participation from a wide array of sectors, including IT and software services, banking and financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce. It also welcomes participants from education and other industries.
Prizes and Recognition
The challenge also offers attractive incentives for the best solutions. The top six participants in the architecture round will each be awarded Rs 1 lakh. Additionally, the winners in the coding round will receive Rs 25 lakh, while the runner-up will be awarded Rs 15 lakh.
Future of Consent Management in India
The MeitY Startup Hub’s initiative aims to support the growth of an open-source ecosystem around consent management systems that can be used by all organizations, regardless of size, to comply with India’s data privacy regulations. This is also expected to play a critical role in creating a standardized approach to handling data consent. It will help shape the Indian digital landscape with consistent data privacy practices.
As the government works toward ensuring the broader adoption of these solutions, it sets the stage for a future where individuals have more control over their personal data, and organizations have the necessary tools to stay compliant with evolving privacy regulations.
For more details and to register, interested participants can visit here – Code for Consent: The DPDP Innovation Challenge
