# Personal data protection bill

• The government on Friday released the draft personal data protection bill, seeking to provide a framework for a strict user consent regime for data processing.
• This Personal data protection bill also has a provision of penalty of upto ₹500 crore for data breaches by social media and net companies while offering concessions to tech firms.
• Tech majors such as Google, Amazon and Meta are seen benefitting from the new draft which eases certain curbs on cross border data transfer – unlike previous versions where conditions had been specified.
• The bill is silent on the need to maintain mirror copies (within India) of sensitive personal data.

# COP27

• As the new draft text used “phase out” in context of coal power, India intervened and got it replaced by phase down on Friday, like it had done at COP26 in Glasgow.
• Four new climate initiatives, including LOTUS (Low Carbon Transport for urban Sustainability) and SURGe ( Sustainable urban Resilience for the next generation) were launched on Friday.
• Many texts which were added by India in COP26 at the last minute are missing in COP27 text.

# Foreign exchange

• The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $14.7 billion during the week ended November 11, 2022 to hit $544.7 billion – the highest level since September 2021.
• After falling to $530 billion in the week ended November 4, a drop of over $100 billion from the beginning of the year, reserves rose to $544 billion in seven days.
• Before last week, forex reserves rose by $16.7 billion during the week ended August 27, 2021.

# Fertilizer subsidy

• The Fertilizer ministry may seek budgetary support of around ₹2.5 lakh crore subsidy for 2023-24.
• The government had only provisioned for ₹1.05 lakh crore for fertilizer subsidy in 2022-23.