Team Goemkarponn
PORVORIM: The Goa government has stepped up its efforts to strengthen data protection and privacy practices across government departments by organising a one-day State-level workshop on the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 at the Secretariat in Porvorim. The programme aimed to enhance awareness, build accountability and promote best practices among officials responsible for handling citizens’ personal data.
The workshop was organised by the Department of Information Technology, Electronics & Communications (DITE&C), Government of Goa, in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) through the National e-Governance Division (NeGD). Senior officials and representatives from various state government departments participated in the capacity-building initiative.
The inaugural session was attended by Kabir Shirgaonkar, Director, DITE&C; Poonam Bharne, Director, Directorate of Prosecution; Dr. Milind Sakhardande, Joint Director, DITE&C; Sharda Katare, Head SeMT, NeGD; along with industry experts Mohit Kedia and Priyanka Sharma and members of the NeGD team.
Addressing the gathering, Director DITE&C Kabir Shirgaonkar stressed that privacy safeguards must be integrated into digital governance initiatives from the design stage itself. He said that as Goa advances projects such as the Konkani large language model through Bhashini, AI Kosh capabilities, inter-departmental data exchange, AI chatbots and WhatsApp-based citizen services, principles such as consent, purpose limitation, data minimisation and security must remain central to implementation. He noted that increasing use of data also increases the responsibility of government departments to comply with the DPDP Act and safeguard personal information.
The workshop featured five technical sessions covering the provisions of the DPDP Act, 2023, and the responsibilities of Data Fiduciaries. Participants were also trained on creating data inventories to identify and classify personal data, implementing notice requirements and managing the rights of data principals, as well as practical aspects of consent management, including informed consent requests and cookie consent mechanisms. The final session focused on technical and organisational measures required to strengthen data protection and foster privacy awareness within government organisations.
According to DITE&C, the workshop marks the beginning of a broader capacity-building initiative to equip government departments with the knowledge, tools and frameworks required under the DPDP Act, 2023. As Goa accelerates digital governance, artificial intelligence and data-driven citizen services, the department aims to ensure that responsible data handling and privacy protection remain integral to the state’s digital transformation.
