Building a compliance-first workforce requires organisations to move beyond meeting regulatory requirements and embed privacy, cybersecurity and governance into everyday business operations, legal, compliance and technology leaders said during an ETLegalWorld and ETCISO webinar held in association with Zoho Vault.
The webinar, titled “Building a Compliance-First Workforce Security for Digital India: DPDPA, RBI & SEBI”, brought together experts from law firms, financial institutions, technology companies and corporate legal departments to discuss how organisations can strengthen workforce security while navigating India’s evolving regulatory landscape.
The discussion comes as companies prepare for the implementation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) alongside heightened cybersecurity and governance expectations from sectoral regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Delivering the keynote presentation, Chandramouli Dorai, Chief Evangelist, Cyber Solutions & Digital Signatures at Zoho Corporation, highlighted the growing importance of digital identity, identity management and digital signatures in establishing trust across digital business ecosystems.
The panel discussion featured Mohammed Naseem Ul Haq Zaki, Managing Partner at Meezaan – Realm of Law; Arinjay Vyas, Senior Specialist – AI Governance and Data Privacy at LTIMindtree; CS Vandana Bhatia, Vice President – Head of Legal, Compliance & Secretariat at DBS Tech India; Shephali Mehra Birdi, Senior Vice President and Head of Legal -Advisory at SBI Card; and Saumya Singh, AVP – Legal Counsel at Sustainable Energy Infra Investment Managers.
Panelists agreed that compliance can no longer remain the sole responsibility of legal or compliance departments, stressing that every employee must view data protection, cybersecurity and privacy as a shared organisational responsibility.
The discussion also focused on the governance challenges arising from rapid AI adoption, with speakers emphasising the need for transparent, accountable and legally defensible AI frameworks. They discussed whether organisations should establish standalone AI governance structures or integrate AI oversight into existing legal, risk and compliance frameworks.
Financial sector participants highlighted the balancing act between accelerating innovation through AI, digital onboarding and cloud-based operations while meeting increasingly stringent privacy and regulatory expectations.
The speakers also underscored that cybersecurity should no longer be treated solely as an IT function. Instead, legal, HR, compliance and technology teams must collaborate to build organisational resilience and prepare for evolving cyber risks.
Concluding the session, the panel identified identity management, workforce awareness, AI governance and cross-functional collaboration as emerging boardroom priorities that will shape enterprise risk management over the coming years.
The webinar was organised under the Legal Security Counsel series, an initiative by ETLegalWorld and ETCISO in association with Zoho Sign and Zoho Vault, focusing on secure and compliant digital transformation in India.
