Chandigarh, 22 April 2016: Data Security Council of India (DSCI), Punjab Engineering College and the Times of India organized a day-long workshop on privacy and information security which was attended by more than 400 students across engineering colleges from Chandigarh and the surrounding regions. The Chief Guest for the occasion was Dr. N.S. Kalsi IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab.
The workshop aimed at helping participants understand about the current privacy landscape in India and data protection laws and regulations. It elucidated various aspects of privacy in the connected world, through a panel discussion, expert talks and case studies. The key themes around which deliberations were held, included, need for a data protection legislation in India, data breaches and privacy in a pervasive and ever-sensing environment, privacy and national security, and the right to privacy in India being a fundamental right, among others. Underscoring the growing demand of privacy professionals in the country, DSCI focused on how students can build their career in this domain.
Nandkumar Saravade, CEO, DSCI, said, “The student community today comprises of the next-gen leaders. With data privacy an emerging function in organizations, along with the possibility of a Privacy Law getting enacted in India looming large, there is a need to educate and raise awareness among this community. DSCI aims to nurture this community and increase their industry readiness in the domain, given the absence of any formal education that caters to present and future demands of privacy professionals in the country. Workshops like these are essential to involve the academia-student into the discourse to make them key stakeholders in the privacy ecosystem in India.”
Quote from Director, PEC
Experts from the various fields conducted these sessions, including Sh. N.S. Kalsi, Chief Secretary Punjab, B. Chandrashelhar, IGP, SCRB, Sukant Gupta, Senior Advocate;; Sastry Tumuluri, Cyber Security Expert, CEO, Digital Self Defense InfoSec; Rahul Sharma, Senior Consultant, DSCI;; Manpreet Singh, Zonal Legal Manager, ICICI Bank; Dr. Sanjeev Sofat, Professor, CSRC and Deputy Director, PEC; Dr. Divya Bansal, Head, CSRC and Anchor, DSCI Chandigarh Chapter and Col. Pavitharan Rajan. "Privacy as an issue require serious deliberation and action to safeguard our future. Cyber Security Research Centre at PEC, Data Security Council of India and Times group have joined hands together to to create awareness about the importance of privacy and protecting personal information. A survey on Privacy awareness has also been conducted amongst 700+ students of the schools and the engineering colleges. The results will be out soon and we would be able to understand the privacy posture of the teens of the tricity. I would like to commend the efforts of CSRC, Times Group and DSCI in spreading the much required awareness amongst the students and the consumers.”