DPDP Compliance and Data Governance Advisory
Practical, lawyer-led compliance under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
What this covers
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 changes how every business that touches personal data in India must operate, from consent and notices through to breach reporting and vendor accountability. The obligations are now in force on a phased timeline, and the penalties attached to getting them wrong run into hundreds of crores. For most businesses, the practical question is not whether DPDP applies, it almost always does, but what level of compliance their specific operations actually require.
This is deliberately lawyer-led advisory work, not an automated scoring tool. A gap assessment, a Significant Data Fiduciary determination, or a data processing agreement carries real legal weight and real consequences if it is wrong, and each is treated here as what it is, a legal opinion or a binding contract, prepared by someone who can stand behind it, not a generated output from a questionnaire.
Compliance under this Act is not a single project with a finish line. It runs across governance (knowing what data you hold and why), documentation (notices, consents, agreements that actually reflect how your business operates), and response readiness (being able to act correctly within hours, not days, if something goes wrong). Businesses that treat it as a one-time exercise typically find the gaps reappear within a year, as vendors change, products evolve, and new data flows open up.
Our approach starts with an honest, specific assessment of where your business actually stands, not a generic checklist, before recommending only the work your risk profile genuinely calls for. A five-person SaaS startup and a two-hundred-person NBFC face very different obligations under this Act, and the advice should reflect that difference precisely.
A note on how enforcement currently works: the Data Protection Board of India is established in law but not yet fully staffed, so active regulatory enforcement has not begun at scale. In practice, the pressure to comply today comes from elsewhere, enterprise customers requiring proof of compliance before signing, investors checking it during due diligence, and the mandatory breach-notification duty, which applies in full regardless of the Board's current status. Being genuinely ready now, ahead of full enforcement, is the advantage.
How we can help
- DPDP readiness assessments
- Gap assessments and compliance audits
- Significant Data Fiduciary (SDF) status determination
- Data mapping and data inventory support
- Privacy policies and website/app privacy notices
- Consent framework design and review
- Data processing agreements (DPAs)
- Vendor and processor contract review
- Data breach response and support
- Data Principal rights request handling (access, correction, erasure)
- Grievance redressal mechanism setup
- DPO advisory and DPO support
- Annual compliance retainers and ongoing support
What you gain
Clarity, not a checklist
You learn precisely what your business needs, not a generic list built for every company regardless of size.
Work that holds up
Every assessment, opinion and agreement is prepared to stand behind, not generated and left unchecked.
Ready before enforcement peaks
Compliance built now, while the regulatory landscape is still settling, rather than under pressure later.
One point of accountability
A named advisor for the awkward calls, not a support ticket into a platform.
How we work your matter
- 1
Assess where you stand
We map your data flows and assess your obligations against your actual size and risk, including whether SDF status applies.
- 2
Close the real gaps
We prioritise the gaps that carry genuine legal and penalty exposure, not every item on a generic list.
- 3
Put the documents in place
Notices, consents, DPAs and policies are drafted to reflect how your business actually operates.
- 4
Stay ready
Through a retainer or periodic review, your compliance keeps pace as your business, vendors and products change.
Questions clients ask
Yes. The Act applies broadly to anyone processing personal data of individuals in India, though the specific obligations, and how strictly they are enforced, scale with the nature and volume of data involved.