Strengthening India’s Genomic Data Security

The rapid growth and development toward providing and ensuring better health to individuals is very evident with the availability of its required technological advancements and resources. Genomic data, derived through such advancements, is a significant contributing factor which would aid in promoting public health. In this age of digitalization, every individual is exposed to an unforeseen situation where their personal data or information may at any moment be found and misused for no good reason. Ever since the usage of genomic data to help mitigate diseases in human beings, a rapid growth has been seen in its usage. In India, the first genome sequencing was done in the year 2009 and has recently collected over 10,000 genomes. This has surely contributed to the wellness of the population and acceleration of research and shall in the future be used to an even greater extent. Along with its strikingly indispensable growth, there is as much requirement for a legal framework to facilitate its growth without any barriers and at the same time keeping in mind the need to protect the data from unauthorized usage and to also keep the same confidential enough to terminate any discrimination of the patient or say, whosoever the genome data belongs to. This paper attempts to put forward the current dangers relating to genomic data protection, which include discrimination based on genomic data of a person, misuse of such data and finally, the manner of governance of sample sequencing conducted abroad. Due to the inadequacy of laws in India for the protection of a person’s genomic data, it is of great necessity to establish a legal framework to protect and ensure the authorised use of the same. This paper also attempts to put forward certain exercises or say, steps taken by different countries like the United Kingdom, whose legal system is very similar to that of India’s and also possessing data protection legislations to govern and ensure the safety of genomic data and other countries such as Switzerland and the United States for the purpose of creating a stronger legal framework to ensure the security of such sensitive data.