InfraVeritas360InfraVeritas360हिन्दीमराठीதமிழ்DPDPiq

DPDP Insights › Manufacturing › Legal & compliance

DPDP for the Legal & compliance in Manufacturing

Reviewed by InfraVeritas360 ResearchFirst published Last reviewed

Sources: DPDP Act, 2023 and DPDP Rules, 2025 (MeitY) · Ministry of Labour and Employment (PIB) · India Code; PRS summary · PIB · Kerala Factories and Boilers Department (copy of the Rules)

Your documents decide who is responsible when agencies, dealers, vendors and government systems share data.

Written for: Legal & compliance, Manufacturing. Open this seat in the interactive tool

What is different here

Agency, contractor, dealer, loyalty and telematics contracts were drafted for commercial terms. They now need data terms. In fertilisers, the role of the company in the PoS and iFMS flow needs a written view.

The first four things to sort out

  1. Add a data schedule to agency, contractor, canteen, medical centre and transporter contracts.
  2. Write a view on who is fiduciary for farmer data in the scheme flow, and for your own farmer programmes.
  3. Separate consent for loyalty, contests and connected-vehicle sharing.
  4. List the laws that require retention: Labour Codes, chemical rules, fertiliser order.

A worked example

Legal & compliance

A manpower agency contract up for renewal

  1. Week 1Legal checks what the agency collects: ID, bank details, photos, medical fitness.
  2. Week 2The agency acts for the company on worker data at the plant. A data schedule is drafted.
  3. Week 3Clauses cover purpose, security, breach notice in hours, worker requests and deletion after exit.
  4. AfterThe schedule becomes the standard for all agencies.

Evidence kept

  • Role note
  • Signed schedule
  • Contract register entry

Write down what the agency may do, and what it must delete.

What others in the sector usually do. Legal teams are using one short data schedule across all plant-level contracts.

Where it usually goes wrong, by organisation type

Organisation typeHotspots
Chemicals and petrochemicalsWorker health surveillance records; Hazardous goods driver and transporter records; Emergency plan contact lists shared with authorities
FertilisersFarmer Aadhaar authentication at retailer PoS; Farmer lists from meetings and agronomy apps; Dealer and retailer KYC records
Automotive and auto componentsConnected-vehicle location data; Dealer-shared buyer lists; Mechanic loyalty apps
FMCG and consumer goodsContest and promotion entries; Retailer app data; Agency-held consumer lists
Steel, metals and miningTownship and hospital records; Contract labour biometrics; Resettlement records
Cement and building materialsMason loyalty bank details; Driver records; Dealer KYC
Textiles and apparelAuditor access to worker files; Hostel records; Agency-held worker data
Food processing and dairyFarmer payment data; Collection centre registers; Consumer complaint records

10 questions the Legal & compliance asks, answered in full

Farmer Aadhaar authentication at the retailer's PoS: who is responsible for what?

Short answer: The scheme flow is the government's; your own farmer programmes are yours

Subsidised fertiliser is sold through PoS devices at retailers, with Aadhaar-based farmer authentication on iFMS, a government platform built by NIC for the Department of Fertilizers. The scheme decides why farmer identity is collected in that flow. Your company sees sales data from it and supplies the retailers. Treat any farmer-level data you see as personal data, use it only for supply and subsidy work, and never for marketing. For your own farmer meetings, soil testing and agronomy apps, you are the Data Fiduciary with full duties. Get a written legal view on your role.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Write the role view and get it approved by DPO / Management.
What the law says

Section 4 needs a lawful basis for each use. Section 6 needs consent for your own programmes. Section 8(1) and 8(5) apply to any data your staff, dealers or vendors handle for you. Section 4 · Section 6 · Section 8(1)–(2) · Section 8(5) · Rule 6 · Section 5 · Rule 3

Steps
  1. Write down which farmer data you see from the scheme, and which you collect yourself.
  2. Limit company dashboards and exports to what supply and subsidy work needs.
  3. Remind dealers and retailers not to keep Aadhaar copies or note numbers in registers.
  4. Give a notice and ask consent in your own farmer apps and meetings.
  5. Keep scheme data and marketing data apart in your systems.
Evidence to keep
  • Written role view
  • Dashboard access list
  • Dealer circular
  • Farmer app notice and consent records
Common mistakes
  • Using scheme purchase data to target offers
  • Retailers keeping Aadhaar photocopies
  • Farmer meeting registers kept for ever

Contract workers, gate passes and biometrics: who is responsible for their data?

Short answer: You are, for data used at your plant; agencies act for you under contract

Your company decides why contract workers' data is collected at your plant: gate access, attendance, safety and the records the Labour Codes ask for. So for that data you are responsible, even when a manpower agency or contractor collects it. Agencies need a contract with data terms. Collect only what the gate and the law need, and delete biometric templates and photos when a worker leaves.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. One data schedule for all agencies and contractors saves months.
What the law says

Section 7 covers purposes of employment and duties under law. Section 8(1) keeps you responsible for processors. Section 8(7) asks for erasure when the purpose is over. Section 7 · Section 8(1)–(2) · Section 8(5) · Rule 6 · Section 8(7) · Rule 8 · Section 5 · Rule 3

Steps
  1. List what is collected for each contract worker: ID, photo, biometric, bank details, medical fitness.
  2. Remove what the gate and the Labour Codes do not need.
  3. Give a short notice in the worker's language at enrolment.
  4. Add a data schedule to every agency and contractor contract.
  5. Delete templates and photos at exit; keep only the registers the law requires.
Evidence to keep
  • Enrolment field list with reasons
  • Notice in local languages
  • Signed agency data schedules
  • Exit deletion log
Common mistakes
  • Agencies keeping their own copies of Aadhaar cards
  • Templates of workers who left years ago
  • Worker lists shared with contractors on chat groups

Emergency plans with contact lists shared with authorities: is that allowed?

Short answer: Yes, for the plan; share only what it needs

Yes. The chemical rules ask the occupier to prepare an on-site emergency plan and share it with the Authority, and crisis groups use plans to prepare district and local plans. Sharing names and phone numbers for this is a duty under law. Share only what the plan needs, keep the list current, and remove people who have left. The rules ask you to inform people outside the site about hazards; they do not ask you to build a register of residents, so keep any such list small.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Note the rule under which each authority receives the plan.
What the law says

Section 7 covers duties under law and safety during a disaster. Section 8(3) asks for accurate data when it is shared. Section 8(5) needs safeguards for the copies. Section 7 · Section 8(3) · Section 8(5) · Rule 6 · Section 8(7) · Rule 8

Steps
  1. List the personal data in the on-site plan: emergency team, key staff, contractors, authority contacts.
  2. Remove what the plan does not need, such as home addresses.
  3. Review the list after every mock drill and when people leave.
  4. Send the plan to authorities through a channel you can show.
  5. Keep old versions only as long as needed, then destroy.
Evidence to keep
  • Plan contact list with review date
  • Mock drill record
  • Transmission record
  • Old version destruction log
Common mistakes
  • Lists with staff who left years ago
  • Home addresses and family numbers in the plan
  • Copies left on notice boards at the gate

What should our privacy notice say, and where must people see it?

Short answer: Yes, at every point where you collect data

A notice must tell people, in plain words, what data you collect, why, how they can withdraw consent, how they can use their rights and how they can complain to the Data Protection Board. It has to stand on its own, separate from long terms and conditions, and be shown at the point where data is collected.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Approve the wording and keep it simple. A notice a regulator can read in two minutes is better than a complete one nobody reads.
Example in Manufacturing

Gate pass forms, contract worker enrolment, the medical centre, dealer and mason app sign-ups and warranty cards each need a short notice, in the language people use.

What the law says

Section 5 and Rule 3 ask for a notice that can be understood on its own, with an itemised list of the data and the purpose for each item. Data you already hold from before the Act also needs a notice, as soon as reasonably practicable. Section 5 · Rule 3 · Section 6 · Sections 11–14 · Rule 14

Steps
  1. List every point where personal data comes in: forms, apps, counters, calls, emails, partner feeds.
  2. Write one short notice per collection point, with the data items and purpose side by side.
  3. Add how to withdraw consent, how to make a request and the DPO or contact person's details.
  4. Offer the notice in English and in the languages your workers and customers actually use.
  5. Keep each version with the date it went live.
Evidence to keep
  • Screenshots or copies of the notice at each collection point, with dates
  • Notice version history
  • Translations, where used
Common mistakes
  • Hiding the notice inside terms and conditions
  • One notice for everything, with no link between data items and purposes
  • Forgetting old data collected before the Act

What must a vendor contract say about personal data?

Short answer: Yes, every vendor that touches personal data

You stay responsible for what your vendors do with personal data. The contract should say what data they get, for what purpose, the security they must keep, how fast they must tell you about an incident, that sub-contractors need your approval, and how data is returned or deleted at the end.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Draft one data-protection schedule and use it for every contract that involves personal data.
Example in Manufacturing

Manpower agencies, contractors, canteen and medical centre operators, transporters, loyalty and telematics vendors.

What the law says

Section 8(1) keeps responsibility with you. Section 8(2) allows a processor only under a valid contract. Rule 6 asks for security terms in that contract. Section 8(1)–(2) · Section 8(5) · Rule 6 · Section 8(6) · Rule 7 · Section 8(7) · Rule 8

Steps
  1. List vendors who receive or can see personal data.
  2. Rank them by how much and how sensitive.
  3. Add a data-protection schedule to each contract, starting with the top ten.
  4. Ask for evidence: certificates, test results, deletion confirmations.
  5. Review the top vendors every year.
Evidence to keep
  • Vendor register
  • Signed data-protection schedules
  • Annual review notes
Common mistakes
  • Relying on the vendor's standard terms
  • No incident-notice time
  • No exit and deletion clause

Are we a Data Fiduciary or a Data Processor?

Short answer: Often both, for different data

You are a Data Fiduciary when you decide why and how personal data is used, as you do for your own staff and customers. You are a Data Processor when you handle data only on another organisation's instructions. Many organisations are both, for different data sets.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Check that contracts match the real role. Calling a vendor a processor while it uses data for its own purposes will not hold.
Example in Manufacturing

Agencies act for you on worker data at your plant. In the fertiliser scheme flow, write down your role.

What the law says

Section 2(i) and 2(k) define the two roles. Section 8(1) puts the duties on the Data Fiduciary, which must use processors only under a valid contract. Section 8(1)–(2) · Section 17(1)(d)

Steps
  1. List each data set you handle.
  2. For each, ask: who decides the purpose?
  3. Mark yourself as fiduciary or processor, and name the other party.
  4. Check that contracts match the role.
  5. Route requests about processor data to the fiduciary.
Evidence to keep
  • Role register by data set
  • Contracts matching the role
Common mistakes
  • Calling yourself a processor for data you use for your own purposes
  • No contract when you act as processor
  • Answering requests that belong to your client

Do we process children's data, and what changes if we do?

Short answer: Check every channel; children often appear where you least expect

Anyone under 18 is a child under the Act. For a child's data you need verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian, and you must not track, behaviourally monitor or show targeted ads to children. Some classes and purposes are exempt under Rule 12 and the Fourth Schedule, for example healthcare to the extent needed to protect the child's health, and educational institutions for their educational work.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Advise on whether a Fourth Schedule exemption applies to each purpose, and write the reasoning down.
Example in Manufacturing

Product contests and school promotions may reach children. Parent consent and no targeted ads apply.

What the law says

Section 9 sets the duties. Rule 10 explains how to verify the parent. Rule 12 and the Fourth Schedule list the exemptions. Section 9 · Rules 10, 12 · Section 6

Steps
  1. Find where children's data enters: customers, dependants, interns, visitors, scholarships, app sign-ups.
  2. Decide whether an exemption in the Fourth Schedule applies to that purpose.
  3. Where none applies, add an age question and a parent-consent step.
  4. Switch off tracking and targeted ads for under-18 users.
  5. Record the decision for each channel.
Evidence to keep
  • Channel-by-channel note on children's data
  • Parent-consent records
  • Ad and tracking settings
Common mistakes
  • Assuming 'we are B2B, so no children'
  • Using the age 13 or 16 from foreign laws
  • Treating a tick-box from the child as parental consent

Police, a court or a regulator asks for someone's data. What do we do?

Short answer: Yes, when the request is lawful and in writing

Check that the request is in writing, comes from the right authority and cites the legal power. Share only what is asked for, record what you sent and to whom, and keep the request on file. The Act allows processing to meet a legal duty, but it does not mean sharing everything on a phone call.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Own the authority request log. Check the legal power every time, even for familiar requesters.
Example in Manufacturing

Labour inspectors, factory inspectors, police and crisis groups ask for records. Log each request and the law it uses.

What the law says

Section 7(d) and 7(e) allow processing to meet a legal duty to disclose to the State, or to comply with a judgment or order. Section 17(1)(c) exempts processing for preventing, detecting or investigating offences. Section 7 · Section 8(5) · Rule 6

Steps
  1. Route every such request to Legal.
  2. Check the authority, the legal power and the scope.
  3. Share only what is asked, by a secure method.
  4. Log the request, what was sent, by whom and when.
  5. Tell the person, unless the law or the authority says you must not.
Evidence to keep
  • Authority request log
  • Copies of requests
  • Record of what was sent
Common mistakes
  • Sharing on a phone call
  • Sending whole files when a few lines were asked
  • No log

Someone asks us to delete their data. Must we?

Short answer: Yes, unless a law requires you to keep it

You must erase data that you no longer need for the purpose it was collected for, unless a law requires you to keep it. Where a law does require it, keep the data, stop using it for anything else, and tell the person why it is being kept and until when.

From your seat: Legal & compliance. Approve the list of laws that require retention, so front-line teams can explain refusals correctly.
Example in Manufacturing

Labour Code registers stay for the legal period; biometric templates and gate photos of exited workers can go much sooner.

What the law says

Section 12 gives the right to correction and erasure. Section 8(7) allows retention only where a law requires it. Rule 8(3) asks every organisation to keep personal data and logs for at least one year first. Sections 11–14 · Rule 14 · Section 8(7) · Rule 8

Steps
  1. Log the request and verify identity.
  2. Check the retention schedule for each record type involved.
  3. Delete what has no legal reason to stay, including copies with vendors and in test systems.
  4. Mark what must stay, with the law and the end date.
  5. Reply in plain words: what was deleted, what is kept, why and until when.
Evidence to keep
  • Erasure log
  • Vendor deletion confirmations
  • Reply to the person
Common mistakes
  • Refusing every erasure request 'because of backups'
  • Deleting records a law requires
  • Not telling vendors

The sections you will use most

Other rules that sit alongside DPDP

RuleWhat it saysWhat it means alongside DPDPSource
Labour Codes (in force from 21 November 2025)The Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025. Together they rationalise 29 earlier labour laws.Worker and contract labour records now follow the codes and the rules under them. Set retention for these records against the codes and state rules, not against the old Acts.Ministry of Labour and Employment (PIB)
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020Subsumes earlier Acts including the Factories Act, 1948 and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. Requires a free annual health examination for employees where prescribed, licences for those hiring contract labour, and registers kept in the prescribed form, electronically or otherwise.Gate passes, attendance, contractor registers and medical checks are legal records. DPDP adds access limits, security and deletion when the legal period is over.India Code; PRS summary
OSH Code: workers in hazardous processesPre-employment, periodic and post-exposure medical examinations are mandatory. Health records are mandatory and accessible to employees and inspectors. Hazardous establishments need an on-site emergency plan and six-monthly mock drills.Health records are among the most sensitive data a plant holds. The worker and the inspector may see them; supervisors and the wider HR team should not.PIB
Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989Rule 13: the occupier prepares and keeps up to date an on-site emergency plan, with a mock drill every six months and the report made available to the Authority. Rule 14: the Authority prepares the off-site emergency plan. Rule 15: the occupier informs persons outside the site about the hazard and safety measures.Emergency plans carry names and phone numbers of staff, contractors and authorities. Share them because the law asks, keep them current, and remove people who have left.Kerala Factories and Boilers Department (copy of the Rules)
Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules, 1996Set up Central, State, District and Local Crisis Groups. The District Crisis Group reviews occupiers' on-site plans while preparing the district off-site plan. The Local Crisis Group prepares the local emergency plan for the industrial pocket, educates the population likely to be affected and answers public inquiries.Contact lists you give the crisis groups are shared for a legal duty. Send only what the plan needs, through a channel you can show.FAOLEX (text of the Rules)
Direct Benefit Transfer in fertilisers (Department of Fertilizers)Sale of all subsidised fertilisers to farmers and buyers is made through Point of Sale (PoS) devices at retail shops. Beneficiaries are identified through documents such as Aadhaar, Kisan Credit Card or Voter ID. Subsidy is released to fertiliser companies on the basis of actual sales by retailers to beneficiaries.Farmer identity and purchase data move through retailers and a government system. Your company sees part of it. Use what you see only for the scheme and supply work.Department of Fertilizers
Integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS)A pan-India digital platform developed by NIC for fertiliser DBT. It includes Aadhaar-based farmer authentication at PoS, captures transactions at manufacturing, import and retail points, and subsidy is released after a sale is recorded at the retailer level.iFMS is the government's system. Company dashboards and exports drawn from it still need access control and logs on your side.National Informatics Centre
Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985Dealers may sell only under an authorisation letter or certificate of registration (clauses 7 and 8). A retail dealer displays daily stock and prices (clause 4) and issues a cash or credit memo in Form M to the purchaser (clause 5). Records and returns in Form N are kept when the Controller directs (clause 35).Dealer authorisation papers and sale memos are dealer and farmer records. Your dealer KYC files and any farmer details on memos need the same care as other personal data.Government of Odisha (copy of the Order)
CERT-In Directions, 28 April 2022Report specified cyber incidents to CERT-In within six hours of noticing them. Keep logs of ICT systems for a rolling 180 days within India. Sync clocks to NIC or NPL time servers, or servers traceable to them.Applies to plants as well as head office. Keep this clock next to the DPDP breach steps in one plan.CERT-In
Explore our research-built assessment platformsDPDP Insights helps you understand the law. DPDPiq is where an organisation's evidence is assessed. Each platform comes out of the same Foundation Layer research. No AI, API or outside service is used when you use this site. Everything runs from InfraVeritas360's own server.