Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Techno-Legal Policies Cannot Be Achieved Within 100 Days Workplan of Indian Government

The Techno-Legal Policies of Indian government may not be achievable within the 100 Days Workplan. Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and leading techno-Legal Expert of India, opined that within a week of time span (100 days starting from 5th June, 2009) some of the “Promises” of the Indian government seems to be just “political jargon” alone.

The position is worst on the front of “Policies Formulation” especially on the front of Techno-Legal Policies and National ICT Policies of India. The cyber law of India is worst affected with the imposition of Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 upon Indian citizens despite their protests. Fortunately, the same is ineffective and not applicable till now as the same is not yet “notified” by the government.

SOURCE: ITVOIR

Phishing Attacks On Rise In India

According to a recent research by India’s leading Techno-Legal ICT Firm Perry4Law, Malware attacks are increasing in India. The problem is bound to further increase in India as we have neither a National ICT Policy nor “political will” to fight against the same. India does not lack the resources to fight the same but we do not have good experts who can execute various promises made by the government. The end result is that cyber law in India is very weak and ineffective. The Information Technology Act, 2000 needs an immediate amendment to make it effective to fight the contemporary cyber crimes.

Hacking is in fashion in India, it seems. After Delhi-based designer Rina Dhaka had her account hacked, mails went out to all her contacts saying that she was stuck in London without her wallet and asked the recipient to send her $2000 to get back home. After that case came to light, it appears that a couple of Rajasthan-based designers, Aruna Singh and Rahul Jain, have also faced a similar problem.

This seems to be a classical case of Nigerian scam and phishing attack.

Indian Government 100 Days Workplan May Fail To Materialise

President of India has recently revealed the “Priorities of Indian Government in the next five years/100 days. However, there should be a political will and bureaucratic competencies to achieve these promises. The Indian Government must shift from promises to real achievements if it really wishes to achieve the 100 Days Promised Agenda.

Within a weak of time span (100 days starting from 5th June, 2009) some of the “Promises” of the Indian government seems to be just “political jargon” alone.

E-Governance In India: A Success Or A Failure?

Electronic Governance or E-governance, a fancy terminology that portrays an image of advanced Nation or capable workforce. The word is so magical and has the tendency to overpower everything else. But the question that has some more important aspect is: What matters most: Reality or an Image? The article is a sincere effort to make our readers aware of e-governance in India, its aspects and what all are the security norms for it? Which phase it is still in India?

Present Scenario:

India is flourishing, undoubtedly. It is on the track to be renowned as world leader and has the best IT work power globally. Still, India has to go distance to achieve the Herculean task of being an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled and capable Nation. It is high time that Indians should peep outside the “Indian Shining Syndrome”. The call of the hour is to understand the real meaning of e-governance and its implications. The deep insight in ICT regulations will unveil the hard facts that how we are in resistive modes till now. It is the time when the Government and Indian Bureaucrats need to change their opinions and lay pressure more upon outcomes and services rather than mere ICT procurement.

Required Strategic Developments:

Presently, country needs a service oriented approach that is transparent and supportive in terms of ICT applications and its outcomes. We need to be at receptive end rather than at resistive note. The Government should lend their ears to the novel ideas and should be pro active in implementing effective e-governance policies rather than just computerizing traditional official functions only.

Merely computerizing the functions is of no help to anyone. Rather, it is just the wastage of thousands of crores of public money and UNDP/World Bank grants amount. The truth becomes more vague in the maze of various reports and surveys, most of which are Government or its agencies/partners “sponsored”. At the International level, India lacks the basic prerequisites of e-governance, i.e. e-readiness, public-governmental interaction, public services, etc and hence mirrors the incompetency of bureaucrat and Government.

Adding to the misery is situation of Indian Government and its Bureaucrats who are more focused upon the image rather than upon the end results. The grassroot level action is missing and hence the benefits of ICT are not reaching to the under privileged and deserving masses due to defective ICT strategies and policies of Indian Government.

What Next?

To imply the e-governance initiatives rightfully, India needs a “virtuous circle” rather than “vicious circle” of defective e-governance. The deeper dive in this mess will show some more horrible results. Reports support the facts that the so called “e-governance experts” in the Bureaucratic and Governmental circles of India do not even know when and how to respond back to urgent and pressing public communications (e-mails).

Loopholes in Implementations:

India is lacking at the basic level of e-governance implications. It lacks the Citizen to Government (C2G) and Government to Citizen (G2C) wings that are the core pillars of not only e-governance but e-commerce as well. The problem is due to “lack of accountability” among the Government Departments. The National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) and E-governance in India have failed to achieve their motives. In short, there is a complete “ICT Failure in India”.

It is surprising that despite these “serious problems” the India Shining image is often portrayed when it come to e-governance in India.

Ading to the misery is reports by Symantec, security research firm that confirms India may emerge as the leader in Malware activities if the cyber security norms are not established for future e-governance initiatives of India. But, this can be a blessing in disguise as failure in implementation of e-governance in India have prevented security holes from being catastrophic.

AUTHOR: KUNAL

PRIMARY SOURCE: APC

SECONDARY SOURCE: ITVOIR