INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD

Abstract:    The paper critically analyses India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, as a monumental step in the country’s evolving digital governance framework. While the Act is presented as a mechanism to protect citizens’ privacy, this study argues that its provisions amalgamate executive power and institutionalise digital control over the masses. Through the lens of digital authoritarianism, the paper explores how the Act legitimises state surveillance, weakening individual autonomy, and creates an asymmetrical relationship between the citizen and the state. Drawing on theoretical insights from Foucault’s notion of surveillance and contemporary literature on data governance, the paper concludes that the DPDP Act reflects India’s slow and steady transition toward a centralised digital state, where data protection is evolving into control rather than democratic participation.