National
Chinese firm's dealings: police kept in the dark about probe
By K. Satyamurty
BANGALORE, DEC. 11. The Karnataka police intelligence apparatus has apparently been kept in the dark about New Delhi's reported concern that the Indian arm of the Chinese telecom MNC, Huawei Technologies India, based in the city, may have developed surveillance equipment for terrorists with Taliban links.
Sources said here on Tuesday that the Centre's intelligence agencies were not required to keep their counterparts in Karnataka informed about any inquiry into the activities of Huawei, and neither had there been any request from the Centre for any collaboration in this regard.
As far as the State intelligence was concerned, routine checks were made into all MNCs based in Bangalore and on foreign nationals employed by them. There had been no cause so far to suspect that any of them had dealings with international terrorists, sources said.
At the State Government level, there has only been a brief reaction to the Centre's interest in Huawei Technologies, considered the seventh largest telecom company at the global level. The IT Secretary, Mr. Vivek Kulkarni, said top company officials were summoned to a meeting, but it was deferred till the end of the week as the two top officials based in Bangalore, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jack Lu Ke, and Mr. Richard Quang, head of the Engineering Department, were away in China.
A spokesperson for Huawei said the company's R&D Centre in Bangalore was set up in 1999 to develop technologies that included wideband switching, embedded systems, 3G mobile communications, wireless infrastructure, network management, intelligent networks, and IP applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These were the latest in communication technology.
Huawei India, with two facilities in Bangalore, had 513 employees, of whom 178 were Chinese professionals. They were engaged in developing telecom software at the two R&D centres. ``Huawei Technologies is a private company that provides total telecom solutions to telecom operators across the globe. Our company's global business is in compliance with the U.N. standards and regulations. Huawei India has close cooperation with leading Indian IT companies and has completed several projects in collaboration with them,'' the spokesperson said.
The Chinese MNC is known to have sub-contracted some of its work to major Indian software companies, including Infosys, Satyam, and BFL MphasiS. Some projects are also carried out here for the parent company in China which has customers across the world.
The State Government is said to be keen on keeping the Huawei affair on a low key as it does not want to alarm other overseas IT corporates with bases here at a time when efforts are being made to woo foreign investors in the hitech sector.
This case emphasised the need for the State intelligence to gather company profiles and ``market intelligence'' in regard to industries, including those in the hitech sector, sources said.
Presently, the intelligence gathering was mainly confined to political and social events, apart from routine police work. With the WTO accord likely to bring in more MNCs into the country, and Bangalore, it was imperative for the Government to gather economic intelligence, sources said.
No information: Kharge
The Karnataka Home Minister, Mr. Mallikarjuna Kharge, said the State had not received any intelligence reports about Huawei Technologies being involved in developing hitech telecom surveillance equipment which had been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Asked by presspersons about reports in this regard in some sections of the media, he clarified that the Central Intelligence Bureau had not sought any information on the issue. Huwaei had dismissed the reports as ``totally baseless.''
Reacting to the reports, the Minister of State for Information Technology, Prof. B.K. Chandrashekar, also said, ``We do not have any information on that.''
Ridiculing the Opposition allegation that an ``IT mafia'' was operating in the State, he said it was a mean charge and the Opposition should not stoop to such level without sufficient evidence.
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