The DPDPA Forum, an independent Section 8 non-profit concerned with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, held Chapter 01 of the DPDPA Leadership Conclave at the Bombay Stock Exchange, Mumbai, on Saturday 17 October 2026. Capt. S V Ramsunder (Retd), a Director of the Forum, welcomed the hall, and Anbazhagan Anand, Strategic Adviser to the Forum, closed the day with the vote of thanks alongside Arasan Anbazhagan, a Director of the Forum.
The day put one question to the hall: who will lead India’s trust era? Across four tracks, between 10:30 am and 2:45 pm, the speakers worked through what the Act will ask of boards, of government and of the people who build India’s financial systems. The core duties of the DPDP Rules apply from 13 May 2027.
Track 01, Enterprise readiness. Adv. (Dr) Ashok Yende, Supreme Court empanelled mediator and Dean of Law, and Capt. Siva Raja Sekhar Padala (Retd), a fintech CEO whose payments infrastructure serves banks across India and the Gulf, took up what the Act asks of a board: governance, consent, data inventories, rights requests and audit. Capt. S V Ramsunder (Retd) moderated.
Track 02, AI governance. Dr M. Nagarajan, IAS, Senior Technology Leader, Government of Gujarat, who holds a doctorate in cybersecurity; Sumnesh Joshi, ITS, Deputy Director General, Government of India, a founding officer of Aadhaar in western India; and Akshay Yadava, Director, UIDAI, discussed where the data law meets artificial intelligence: human oversight, explainability, and who answers when a model gets it wrong.
Track 03, India’s global opportunity. Prof. (Dr) Rashmi M. Oza, human rights jurist and Chagla Chair Professor and former Head of Law, University of Mumbai; Dr Ritesh Jain, former COO (Digital), HSBC, who brought the GDPR perspective; and Anbazhagan Anand, on customs, cross-border data and regulatory administration, asked whether India can become a trusted destination for cross-border data and responsible AI.
Track 04, Trusted data ecosystems. Col. (Dr) Ranga Sai Rajan (Retd), Army aviator and NSG Group Commander, and Maj. Madhan Kumar (Retd), Indian Army veteran and author of Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story, discussed sharing data safely: stewardship, interoperability and cybersecurity. Arasan Anbazhagan moderated. Under Rule 7 of the DPDP Rules, every personal data breach has to be reported to each person affected.
Special Guest. Shri D. Sivanandhan, IPS (Retd), former Director General of Police, Maharashtra, and former Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, attended as the Special Guest. When the Track 01 panel was called back to the stage, he honoured both panellists and their moderator. Each track ended the same way: Shri Arasu Gunasekaran honoured the Track 02 panel, and Shri Unnikrishnan Nambiar the panels of Tracks 03 and 04.
Key Delegates. Shri Unnikrishnan Nambiar, Principal, MCT College of Law, Navi Mumbai; Shri Arasu Gunasekaran, formerly of the SPG Close Proximity Team; Shri Sundaresha Subramanian, business journalist and author of The Dirty Dozen; DIG Shashi Bhushan and DIG Bibhuti Ranjan, Deputy Inspectors General, Indian Coast Guard; and Mr Roopesh L R, principal engineer and author of AI CEO.
For the Forum. Capt. S V Ramsunder (Retd) and Arasan Anbazhagan, Directors, and Anbazhagan Anand, Strategic Adviser. The line printed on the Forum’s backdrop at the Exchange read: Accountability begins at the top.
Photographs. The record of the day, in twelve chapters from arrivals to the close, is on the Forum’s website, under Conclave, Chapter 01. High-resolution photographs are available to editors on request.