Mukesh Ambani says 'data colonisation' as bad as physical colonisation

Amid a raging debate on data localisation, richest Indian Mukesh Ambani Wednesday said "data colonisation" is as bad as previous forms of colonisation and India's data must be controlled and owned by Indians.

Speaking at Republic Summit here, Ambani, who is chairman of energy-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, said data of an individual or business belongs to them and not to corporates who could use it to monetise from them.

"In this new world, data is the new oil. And data is the new wealth. India's data must be controlled and owned by Indian people and not by corporates, especially global corporations," he said.

Throwing his weight behind Indian authorities seeking companies to store data locally, he said the Supreme Court has mandated that data privacy is sacrosanct.

"Therefore, for India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, necessary steps will have to be taken to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India - in other words, Indian wealth back to India," he said. "Data colonisation is as bad as the previous forms of colonisation."
The government wants companies doing business in India to store all customer data locally. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April ordered companies to store the "the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them... in a system only in India" so as to ensure "unfettered supervisory access" for "better monitoring."