Industry leaders are calling the Government of India’s latest regulatory move on DPDP rules a turning point for enterprise governance, urging organisations to upgrade their identity, access, and cybersecurity frameworks to meet emerging national standards.
Alongside AI governance, India’s newly notified Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules are expected to reshape data management practices across the enterprise landscape. According to Sumed Marwaha, Managing Director, AHEAD India, the phased implementation timeline gives businesses the flexibility needed to prepare: “With the DPDP Rules, India joins the league of global data protection frameworks such as GDPR and CCPA, only sharper and more scalable for the country’s digital ambitions. The phased rollout gives organisations a clear runway to modernize systems, streamline data flows, and prepare for new obligations around consent, retention, access and breach response.”
Marwaha described the new rules as an opportunity rather than a burden: “At AHEAD, we see this as an opportunity for enterprises to build sustainable, future-ready data practices without letting compliance efforts spiral into unnecessary cost or complexity. Our work across cloud transformation, data platforms, cybersecurity and application modernization gives us a unique vantage point to help organisations interpret the rules, assess readiness, and implement controls in a structured and efficient manner.”
He added that successful compliance will be visible only through tangible execution.
“The DPDP Rules are a strong start, but the proof lies in execution. By combining technology acceleration with robust governance frameworks, we help enterprises turn regulatory requirements into long-term operational strength and trusted digital experiences. We remain committed to guiding our clients through each phase of adoption.”
Also read: MeitY Notifies DPDP Rules, 2025, Industry Prepares for 18-Month Compliance Window
Sanket Atal, SVP, Engineering and Country Head, OpenText India, said the DPDP Rules introduce a set of obligations that will significantly impact businesses managing large and complex data environments: “The DPDP Rules of 2025 represent one of the most consequential shifts in India’s data governance framework. Beyond the headline requirements, the rules formalise three critical obligations for enterprises: verifiable consent, demonstrable accountability, and real-time breach visibility. These expectations move organisations from passive data collection to active data stewardship.”
He noted that the revised compliance requirements will necessitate major operational restructuring: “The impact will be felt most by organisations with large and complex data estates. Today, many Indian enterprises operate with legacy applications sitting alongside multi-cloud deployments, making it difficult to track how personal data is collected, shared, stored and deleted. The DPDP Rules now require organisations to maintain accurate data maps, establish consent-verification workflows, standardise retention schedules and ensure that any cross-border movement of personal data aligns with the ‘blacklist-based’ transfer regime.”
Atal cautioned that compliance cannot remain symbolic: “This is where the real challenge begins. Compliance cannot be limited to a documentation exercise anymore. It has to become part of how work happens every day rather than something documented after the fact. IT teams will need to strengthen identity governance, automate audit trails and reduce data sprawl to meet 72-hour breach reporting and verifiable consent standards. For sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, e-commerce and citizen services, the new rules will require an overhaul of data flows to ensure full traceability and predictable governance.”
