The Hindu : Govt. tightening cyber security: Shourie

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 26, 2003

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Govt. tightening cyber security: Shourie

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI APRIL 25. Taking a cue from the busting of an espionage attempt through information technology, the Government today said that it was tightening cyber security. It was also working on a single licence regime in the telecom sector to end legal wars between telecom companies.

Replying to discussion on the working of the Communications and IT Ministry, the Communiction Minister, Arun Shourie, informed the Rajya Sabha that the Government had set up a broadbased group to suggest a universal licence regime that would allow companies to offer any kind of service with any type of technology.

Fresh attempts were being made to resolve the problem of cyber squatting which was a major block in the Government's drive to usher in a single licence regime. The Finance Ministry had agreed to compensate the Defence Ministry, particularly the Indian Air Force, for costs to be incurred in more efficient utilisation of frequency.

A computer emergency response scheme was being set up in two places to prevent disruptions of key facilities during emergency situations. Besides several sub-groups in the Department of Information Technology were working on proposals to improve protection to critical IT infrastructure and frame an encryption policy.

He also declared the Government's intention to indigenously source software for defence and other strategically critical sectors. Responding to apprehensions raised by members about the dominance enjoyed by the costlier proprietary software (Microsoft), Mr. Shourie on Thursday indicated his willingness to introduce open source software, available at 10 per cent of the price of proprietary software, in Government offices. On being assured that compatibility would not be a major issue, the Rajya Sabha Chairperson, Najma Heptullah, offered to instal open source software in her office.

The Government's partiality towards free software was expressed on a day when Microsoft sought to tighten its group on the sector with the world-wide launch of Windows Server 2003 to enable users run their IT infrastructure efficiently.

Mr. Shourie and Dr. Heptullah were responding to a plea by Prithviraj Chavan, while participating in a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. He also wanted to know why New Delhi insisted on proprietary software in all its tenders. This contrasted with the practice in many countries of purchasing open source software.

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