M-Governance In India

Mobile governance in India (m-governance in India) is the latest buzz word in India. Indian government is planning to use m-governance for delivery of public services. However, India has neither a regulatory framework nor m-governance infrastructure to accomplish this huge task.

To successfully implement m-governance in India there must be a forceful obligation on the governmental departments to provide m-governance enabled services. Presently, we have no legal framework for mandatory electronic governance services in India and m-governance in India.

This has not discouraged Indian government from exploring an area for which it is not ready at all. Another associated area pertains to lack of privacy laws, data protection laws and data security laws in India.

The real problem with Indian E-Governance and M-Governance initiatives is that Legal Framework for Mandatory Electronic Delivery of Services in India is missing, says Praveen Dalal, Supreme Court lawyers and Managing Partner of India’s exclusive techno legal law firm Perry4Law.

There is no effective Legal Enablement of ICT Systems in India and even the Information Technology Act, 2000 is “Non-Mandatory” regarding E-Governance and M-Governance in India, informs Praveen Dalal. The Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill 2011 of India must be made an “Enforceable Law” before M-Governance can be successful in India, suggests Dalal.

India has been imposing projects and authorities without any legal framework and in active violation of the provisions of Indian Constitution. For example, the unique identification project of India (UID project) or Aadhar project of India is operating in India without any legal framework. Similarly, the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) is also operating in India without any legal sanction and Parliamentary oversight. Both Aadhar Project and UIDAI are using hard earned public money that also in an “Unconstitutional manner”, informs Dalal.

Surprisingly, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh did not find anything wrong with this exercise despite protests in this regard. It is obvious that the present legal and regulatory regime of India is not compatible and conducive for cloud computing services, e-governance and m-governance in India and India is still not ready for these initiatives. If India still believes in self regulation in these crucial fields, nothing can be more suitable as a corruption breeding ground than these initiatives.

Notification Of Joint Drafting Committee To Prepare Draft Lokpal Bill

Ministry of law and justice has finally issues the official gazette notification constituting the joint drafting committee to prepare draft of the Lokpal Bill. The Bill would be placed in the next session of Parliament.

The joint committee would be headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and former law minister Shanti Bhushan would act as the co-chairman of the committee. The joint drafting committee will consist of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of Anna Hazare, including himself.

The five Ministers are Pranab Mukherjee, P. Chidambaram, Veerappa Moily, Kapil Sibal and Salman Khursheed. The five civil society members are Anna Hazare, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal.

The joint drafting committee will commence its work forthwith and involve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation. The joint drafting committee shall complete its work latest by June 30.

This is a good step in the right direction, says Praveen Dalal, a Supreme Court Lawyer and managing member of India’s first RTI Helpdesk. The best part of this Notification is that it is flexible as it allows the Committee to follow its “own procedure”. Thus, expert opinion of others can also be taken and they can be a part of the same as the “invitee members” of the Committee, informs Dalal. Further, the Committee has to act in a “time bound manner” and this would also ensure early draft of the proposed Lokpal Bill of India, suggests Dalal.

Corruption has increased dramatically in India and legislations like Lokpal Bill and institutions like Lokayukta would go a long way in reducing the same. Further, laws like right to information act, 2005 go a long way in bringing transparency in the governmental dealing of India.

Recently, the right to information rules, 2010 were drafted by the Indian government. However, according to RTI experts like Praveen Dalal they are retrograde in nature. India needs an “optimum combination” of RTI Act 2005, Lokpal Law and Lokayukta Organisations, suggests Dalal.

Now the Committee for Lokpal Bill has been constituted, many reforms can be anticipated. However, the views and opinions of other experts and public at large must also be taken before the final Lokpal Bill is presented in the Parliament of India.

The New National Telecom Policy Of India 2011

The first National Telecom Policy of India was written in 1994. It was subsequently reformulated as the New Telecom Policy in 1999 and was also amended in 2004. Now proposals have been given to formulate National Telecom Policy of India 2011.

The Telecom Policy of India has been in controversies like 2G scam in the past. The present Telecom Policy of India is anti common man. It is going against the interests of telecom consumers of India. India needs consumer friendly telecom policy to break the vicious circle that has engulfed the telecom sector of India, says Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and leading techno legal telecom expert of India.

Similarly, in the name of national security and cyber security, companies like Gmail, Skype and BlackBerry have been troubled a lot in India. The biggest problem creator is the encryption issues that are not acceptable o the intelligence agencies of India.

Encryption is an unresolved enigma in India. We have no encryption laws in India and despite the suggestions of many experts’ encryption laws and regulations in India are still missing. Encryption has also become essential due to faulty electronic sniffing and e-surveillance approach of India.

Of late, India is pressurising Research in Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry for providing unencrypted e-mail and telecom communications in India. By threatening to ban Blackberry services in India, the government has already obtained access to Blackberry’s messenger services. Now India is forcing the telecom service providers of India to drop Blackberry’s services if it does not provide free and unencrypted access to its services in India.

In this entire quandary, Indian government has not paid attention to the real issues. Issues like Consumer Friendly National Telecom policy of India, Telecom Security of India, establishment of Telecom Security Council of India, establishment of Telecom Security Regulatory Authority of India (TSRAI), etc must be considered by Indian Government in general and Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) in particular on a “priority basis”, suggests Praveen Dalal. Further, Telecom Security Policy of India must also be formulated as soon as possible as India has already taken more than enough time in this regard, suggests Dalal.

We have no telecom security policy in India. There is no mechanism in India through which telecom hardware and software can be analysed for backdoors and malware. In these circumstances, formulating an Indian telecom security policy is urgently required.

The new telecom policy of India 2011 must incorporate all these suggestions in order to be effective. If we need to eradicate corruption that is marring the present telecom sector of India, we must take bold and immediate steps in this regard.

Cyber Espionage In India

Cyber espionage is an area that has recently attracted the attentions of Indian government and corporate houses alike. Both Indian government and corporate houses are the biggest loosers from cyber espionage. Sensitive information on national security and trade secrets and commercial information has been occasionally stolen through cyber espionage in India.

India has been a victim of cyber espionage on many occasions where crackers operating in foreign jurisdictions regularly attack Indian computers and have successfully taken out sensitive information. International community is stressing upon enhancement of their cyber security capabilities unlike India.

As a result of this apathy, India is facing serious cyber threats. With the growing cyber threats against India like cyber terrorism, cyber warfare, cyber espionage, etc, it is very much required to have good national cyber security policy of India.

Homeland Security of India must be strengthened and in order to do so we must take care of issues like Cyber Law, Cyber Security, Cyber Espionage, Cyber Terrorism, Cyber Warfare, etc, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and CEO of the exclusive techno legal cyber security research, training and educational centre of India.

Cyber espionage is not only committed for commercial benefits but it may also be motivated by patriotic feelings resulting in cyber assaults on businesses and other governmental computer systems.

Cyber Espionage may be committed by an insider or an outsider with the help of Internet and computer. The problem is that Cyber Espionage is inexpensive and relatively easy to commit and it is also difficult to prove with absolute certainty, says Dalal. Having an effective Cyber Security Mechanism at place can help in prevention of majority of Cyber Espionage issues, but there is no full proof method of preventing Cyber Espionage, claims Dalal. With adequate resources and time, a Cracker can penetrate and exploit the intended target, says Dalal.

Cyber Security in India has not received much attention of Indian government and there is not even a Cyber Security Policy of India. In fact India is vulnerable to cyber espionage, cyber crimes, cyber terrorism and many similar cyber threats. India is not serious at all regarding digital issues and others are taking advantage of this political will vacuum.

Websites Blocking In India

The blocking of Zone-H website in India shows how easy it is to get any qualitative and genuine site blocked. All you need is an ex parte order from a competent court and the rest would be taken care of by the Indian judicial system that taken decades to get a dispute resolved. Effectively and practically it means blocking of Zone-H website for more than 20 years or so unless challenged successfully in India.

Of course, you can access the Zone-H website in India if you wish to do so. Further, using of TOR Software would also allow you to access the website of Zone-H or any other blocked website. But this recourse is unfortunate to say the least.

India is a Democratic Country with a Right to Speech and Expression, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and CEO of India’s exclusive Human Rights Protection Centre for Cyberspace. Unfortunately, Websites Blocking and Internet Censorship in India have increased significantly, informs Dalal. At times, there is little application of mind while blocking a website in India, says Dalal.

Recently, Blogspot domain was blocked in India once again. It was not clear why Blogspot was blocked in India though some tried to provide an explanation and reasons of the same. It may be an “experimental blockage” that took place at the point where Internet traffic enters and exits India.

This exercise may have different names. Some may call it an Internet Kill Switch (IKS) whereas others may call it a centralised monitoring system (CMS). Whatever the name you may wish to give it, we need measures to prevent its abuse in India.

Similarly, even the Judiciary of India must change its attitude towards Blocking of Websites, suggests Dalal. The Blocking of Zone-H Website and its Continuance only gives a bad taste and shows lack of sensitivity towards this issue, suggests Dalal. If Courts and Executive take wrong or hasty decisions, Self Defence in Cyberspace seems to be the only choice for citizens of India, opines Dalal.

Indian citizens must fight website blocking and Internet censorship in India. This is more so when the draconian and unregulated powers have been self conferred by Indian government and its agencies upon themselves without any procedural and civil liberty safeguards.

E-Courts Project Of India

Information and communication technology (ICT) has many pro active and useful purposes. In the context of judicial functioning of India, ICT can bring many far reaching judicial reforms in India. Role of ICT for judicial reforms of India is no more a novel concept but a well accepted fact.

However, despite this realisation, e-courts in India have failed to be established. Till the month of April 2011, we are still waiting for the establishment of first e-court of India. In the name of e-courts, India has just computerised some of the traditional courts litigation and administration systems. By and large, e-judiciary in India is still an unfulfilled dream.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi base techno legal ICT law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India, E-Courts in India have still to see the light of the day. India is still at the first stage of Computerisation of some of the aspects of Courts. Full fledged E-Filling, Submission of Plaints and Documents Online, Online Evidence Producing, etc are still missing, informs Dalal.

Establishment of e-court would require tremendous domain specific techno-legal expertise and in the absence of the same e-courts project is bound to fail. We have a single and exclusive techno legal e-courts training and consultancy centre of India. The centre provides techno legal assistance for establishment, maintenance and upgradation of e-courts infrastructure all over the world.

The present e-court infrastructure of India needs rejuvenation. We do have a legal enablement of ICT systems in India. Till a legal framework conducive for techno legal development of Indian judiciary is not established, legal and judicial systems of India have little incentives to adopt technology. In short, we need legal enablement of ICT systems in India.

Further, judicial e-infrastructure of India also needs rejuvenation. The moment e-filing, presentation, contest and adjudication of the cases in an online environment would start, India would surely be capable of establishing e-courts. In the absence of these capabilities, we have to wait for few more years to get speedier justice in India.

Digital Preservation In India

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) of India is one of the most innovative and much needed initiatives undertaken by Indian government. Being a digital library it must ensure digitalisation of contents as well as their digital preservation.

Digital preservation has assumed significance due to the extensive adoption of Internet and networking technologies. Individuals and organisations are producing vast amount and diverse nature of digital information that if not preserved would be lost forever. Digital preservation is a trustworthy solution ensuring long-term access to the past and contemporary digital information form future references.

Digital preservation is also an important requirement when it comes to preserving national heritage and other historic and current documents, manuscripts, heritage, etc. This is the reason why developed countries have a well established framework for digital preservation.

Although digital preservation is a very crucial field, yet it has not received much attention in India. Indian national digital preservation policy is still missing and there is no legal framework for digital preservation in India.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based IP and ICT law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India, Digital Preservation Framework in India is missing as we do not have a “dedicated” techno legal Digital Preservation Law in India. Further, laws like Public Records Act, 1993, Right to Information Act, 2005, proposed Electronic Delivery of Services Bill 2011 (Bill), etc also mandates Digital Preservation and Digitilisation of records in “Electronic Form”, informs Praveen Dalal.

Digital preservation 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 digital preservation 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, digital preservation initiatives of India need urgent reforms. The task is really difficult unless good experts are involved in this much needed project. For the time being, digital preservation initiatives of India are falling well short of the desired actions.