Delivering the special address at the ETCISO Data Protection & Privacy Summit 2025, Damini Marwah, President and Group Head – Legal, Axis Bank, highlighted how India’s accelerating digital transformation has elevated data privacy from a regulatory obligation to a strategic business imperative.

Acknowledging the keynote delivered by Hon’ble Justice (Retd.) B. N. Srikrishna, Marwah noted his pivotal role in shaping the country’s data protection landscape and emphasised the urgency of strengthening organisational accountability in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA).

Marwah pointed to India’s meteoric rise as a digital powerhouse, backed by compelling data. “India continues to be the third largest digitalised country in the world… with one of the fastest 5G rollouts and among the highest volumes of digital transactions,” she said, adding that the digital economy is growing almost twice as fast as the overall economy.

The country’s scale, she noted, is both an advantage and a responsibility—creating unprecedented opportunity while amplifying risks of personal data misuse and cyber threats.

Against this backdrop, she called the DPDPA a crucial milestone that strengthens individual rights and enforces responsible data management. “It empowers individuals with greater control over their personal information and aims to foster trust and transparency by ensuring that personal information is collected for legitimate use with consent,” Marwah said.

She also underscored industry-wide curiosity around what constitutes “reasonable security safeguards” observing that a flexible, non-prescriptive regulatory design allows organisations to evolve controls that fit their operational realities.

Marwah stressed that trust — not technology alone — will differentiate businesses in a hyper-digital economy. “A fundamental question that will continue to remain for consumers is: can we trust the systems involved with our personal data?” she said. As customers increasingly prefer companies that demonstrate accountability and transparency, enterprises that invest in responsible data practices will be best positioned for sustainable growth.

Looking ahead, Marwah encouraged security leaders, technologists and policymakers to leverage forums like the ETCISO Summit to co-create practical frameworks for secure and ethical data use. “This opportunity to exchange forward-looking approaches will be invaluable for all of us in shaping responsible data security frameworks,” she noted.

She concluded by reaffirming that India’s trust economy will be built not merely through compliance, but through a cultural shift in how organisations view, value and protect personal data.

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