Cyber Crime Policy Of India

Cyber crime is an area that requires policy formulation at the national level. In the Indian context, there is no national cyber crimes policy of India. In fact, cyber crime policy and strategies of India is so important that the issue must be taken up by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) of India. The present cyber law of India is not effective and PMO must ensure a new cyber law for India.

India needs to do extensive research on the legal and policy related issues pertaining to regulation of cyber crime at the national and global levels. Although India is not a signatory to the EU Convention on Cyber Crimes yet there is no reason for it to remain aloof from International Norms and Standards, says Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and a Supreme Court lawyer.

India has been lax regarding policy formulation for techno legal issues. For instance, there is no cyber security policy and strategy in India, no national security policy of India, no national security and ICT policy of India, no ICT policy in India, no national ICT crisis management plan of India, etc.

In this background, it is no surprise that we have no cyber crime policy in India as well. When issues like Cyber Terrorism, Cyber Warfare, Cyber Espionage, etc are troubling India, having no Cyber Crime Policy is not a good indication, cautions Dalal.

We must urgently formulate a good and effective Techno Legal Cyber Crime Policy for India, suggests Dalal. It is for the government of India to take the initiative as sooner or later it has to adopt ICT related policies for India. The sooner these policies are adopted the better it would be for the national interest of India.

Reasons For Failures Of E-Governance In India?

E-governance in India has by and large a failure. This is because of the poor policy decisions taken by Indian government. There is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computerization of traditional governmental and public functions are not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of ICT.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an indispensable part of our daily life. It has the potential to streamline procedures, inculcate discipline among workforce, and bring transparency and accountability and reduction of costs. The benefits are tremendous provided we have the will, insight and knowledge to use it.

E-governance in India is in its infancy stage. The National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) is the umbrella under which all e-governance initiatives are taking place. However, there are very few successful and completed e-governance initiatives like MCA21 in India. Whether it is e-courts, e-readiness, legal enablement of ICT systems, e-gazette, e-commerce etc none are even close to success. So where lies the problem?

Firstly, there seems to be lack of insight among the policy-makers. The ICT polices and strategies of India are not covering the e-governance aspects at the national level. No political party ever considers e-governance as an important part of their political agenda before elections. Even commodities like onion and potatoes find place in national debates but not e-governance.

Secondly, there is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computeristion of traditional governmental and public functions are not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of ICT. We have to make the governmental services user-friendly as well as productive and easy.

Thirdly, there is lack of transparency in governmental dealing and in the absence of the same e-governance is just paperwork. In India, we have the Right to Information Act, 2005 but the same has been a failure in India. The public information officers keep on denying the relevant information on flimsy grounds.

In exceptional cases, citizens may get some information but by and large very few people get the information.

Fourthly, accountability among governmental officers is missing. There is no mechanism through which we can punish a wrong doer for his violations and negligence. This results in a casual attitude towards public good and e-governance. If we fix accountability and time-bound progress requirements then a lot of problems can be solved.

Fifthly, public participation in both policy making and governmental decisions is missing. If we get the opinion of those who are somehow surviving at the grassroots level we can solve the majority of our problems. However, the fact is that grassroots level problems are never solved.

The induction of information technology into governance, especially at the rural level, is not an easy task due to unstructured nature of rural development, low literacy levels and reluctance to adopt information technology. Regional disparities which were already glaring in poverty, employment generation, literacy are widening further. E-governance will be successful only if we start to undertake due efforts to implement it in all blocks and districts and spread it to the grass root level.

Being the largest democratic country, India must show an example to other in this context. But in last many years we have not seen the efficiency of public servants, who are supposed to be the some of the best brain of India. For attaining developed status our public service system must work in a better way. Citizen must participate in various activities, if we really want to see India as a developed nation. Public service must be strengthened in India in true spirit, if we want to become to become a developed nation in near future.

Digital Preservation In India Needs Reforms

Digital Preservation (DP) in India has not received the attention that it deserves. There is neither a regulatory framework for the same nor is it pursued with any seriousness under the national e-governance plan (NEGP) of the department of information technology (DIT), India. In the absence of ICT policy of India, digital preservation has still to cover a long gap.

The only solace is that a national digital preservation programme (NDPP) of India has been launched by Indian government. However, the NDPP seems to have stagnated with no development happening in this regard.

The DP initiatives of India are facing many road blocks that are preventing them from materialising in India. For instance, intellectual property rights (IPRs) are commonly found conflicting with DP initiatives. Further, with the rapid advancement of technology day by day, old applications and methods are becoming obsolete. We need to upgrade them from time to time. We also need to change form of various IPRs protected works from one form to another. This sometimes results in IPRs violations.

In short, IPRs issues in the digital era and cyber space are difficult to manage and we need both good policies and laws to manage the same effectively.

According to Praveen Dalal, advocate Supreme Court of India and leading cyber law expert of India, "DP issues would become more complicated with the enactment of laws like Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 1998 (DMCA). Efforts are in the pipeline for adoption of an efficient Digital Rights Management (DRM) system in India. This seems to be a step in the direction of protecting fast-growing Indian digital entertainment and media industry. However, in the absence of good ICT Policy and effective legal framework, these initiatives may not produce the desired results, suggests Dalal.

The stagnation of the NDPP cannot be removed till the government of India takes some active steps in the direction of utilising the services of experts who are familiar with this aspect. Till now no such serious efforts have been undertaken by Indian government.

National E-Governance Plan Of India Has Failed

E-governance in India is ailing despite all glorious and false media propaganda. The chief parameter of the success of any e-governance plan is to analyse its e-infrastructure achievements. In India, e-infrastructure is in real mess.

Despite so many years and crores of public money, India has still to enact a versatile and robust ICT policy. In the absence of an ICT policy of India, the e-governance initiatives of India have failed to materialise.

It is in this background we have to analyse the role played by the department of information technology (DIT), India. Although DIT has formulated the national e-governance plan yet it would be more prudent to call it no e-governance plan of India (NEGP). This is because the common man and grass root level consumers have not been benefited at all by the e-governance initiatives of India.

Of course, we have some good achievements like MCA 21 as well. But by and larger, e-governance in India has failed to materialise. Corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, lack of time bound results, lack of progress analysis and punishments for deviations, etc are some of the reasons why we have no e-governance success in India.

It is highly unfortunate that the prime minister’s office (PMO) has no control over DIT in general and minister A. Raja in particular. The PMO could have played a better role by keeping a close vigil at the initiatives of DIT but it preferred to keep a mum and turn a blind eye towards all sorts of incompetencies, corruption and scams.

Open Government Policy In India Is Required

The need of “public initiatives” to fill the policy vacuum in India was long felt. Policies making and their implementation is a governmental task. There is always a big gap between the desired policies and actual policies that are in existence. This, naturally, affects the Nation at large but its consequences are mostly borne by the citizens of that Nation. Although there are many policy lapses in India but the most glaring among them are those pertaining to Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Last week, the White House launched an unprecedented online process for public engagement in policymaking. It began with a week of brainstorming in which the public shared almost 900 submissions and 33,000 votes on various ideas ranging from strategies for making government data more accessible to legal and policy impediments to transparency.

While this is the first of its kind in America, India has been benefited by “public policy making” for long. This is more so regarding the “techno-legal ICT regulations” in India where Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing partner of Perry4Law, has contributed significantly. The latest policy suggested by him is “National ICT Policy of India” that mentions some of the parameters that should be included in the national policy of India.

It seems America has taken a cue from the activities happening in India but Indian government is not interested in taking the external help. There is no doubt that India lack critical policies in the sphere of ICT and it is high time that the “Public Initiatives Model” of Perry4Law must be adopted by it in the larger interest of India.

AUTHOR: PRITESH N MUNJAL

SOURCE: TLNAV

Orissa State Would Formulate ICT Policy In November

It seems some of the States of India have finally accepted the suggestions of Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law, after a lapse of 5 years. The delay is excusable as it is better to be late than never. However, the real task is to formulate suitable "Techno-Legal ICT Policies" that are the need of the hour.

The IT department of the Orissa government expects to come out with a new ICT (information and communication technology) policy, incorporating the best practices of IT-friendly states in the country by November this year. The new state focused ICT policy is being formulated after a gap of five years.

Apart from including the best IT practices of states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and positioning Orissa as a favourable destination for IT investments, the new policy would also contain enabling measures for growth of IT SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

“We are in the process of preparing the new ICT policy which would include the best IT practices of the IT friendly states in India and also have measures to facilitate growth of the local IT SMEs.The new ICT policy is expected to be readied by November this year”, a senior IT official told Business Standard.

The state IT department is yet to finalise the details of the policy, but we are taking suggestions from different stakeholders in the IT sector in this regard, he added.

It would be a good idea if the Orissa Government starts seeking valuable inputs from Techno-Legal Experts as soon as possible. Formulating of suitable ICT Policy requires tremendous excpertise and innovation. The sooner we start the better it would be for India.

SOURCE: BUSINESS STANDARD