Faced with increasing pressure from the European Union, the government is all set to introduce a new legislation on data protection next year and also amend the Information Technology Act to plug loopholes and strengthen it.

"With India emerging as the data back office of the world, there is immense pressure especially from the European Union and even from the US for setting up proper rules and legislation to protect data," Rodney D Ryder, legal advisor to the government on IT Act, told PTI on the sidelines of a seminar of cyber laws organised by Inmantec.

He said a committee, which has been set up to look into the legislation, was giving its final touches and was likely to be introduced in Parliament in the first half of next year.

Ryder said the proposed legislation will not just ensure data protection, but would also pave the way for appointment of a regulator to monitor the collected data and its usage.

"It will be somewhat similar to a data protection or data privacy commissioners in Europe who would look into how the data is collected and how it is used," he said.