Parliamentary Panel Questions Paytm About Chinese Investment; Google Over Resisting Data Localisation
Indian e-commerce finance company Paytm on Thursday offered a suggestion to the joint committee of Parliament on personal data protection bill that the government should “handle” encryption and decryption of data held by tech companies, only to withdraw it after several objections by members of the panel. The only indigenous Indian company among tech majors like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter to be examined by the panel, Paytm was asked about the quantum of Chinese investments it has received, why parts of Paytm revenues, via its digital payment gateways, were pumped back to China, and the details of Paytm’s online betting App, which was removed temporarily from Google Play Store for violating its gambling policies earlier this year. Paytm vice presidents Narendra Singh Yadav and Dharmendra Jhamb acknowledged about 35% Chinese investment in Paytm, and also that some sensitive and personal data may be transferred outside India “for the purpose of p...