[Reader-list] Indian Convergence bill

[pankaj at sarai.net]

This is a text from today's (15.05.01) Hindustan times

Really Scary!

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PERHAPS IT was too good to last. Marking out your little outpost on the Net won't be as easy as saying HTML anymore. If the government has its way, you'll have to get a licence to post content on the Net.

The Centre is moving ahead on the convergence platform to bring Internet, e-commerce and all IT-related services under a licence regime. Such a proposal has been included in the revised draft Communications and Convergence Bill likely to be introduced in

the next session of Parliament.

Apart from web content, whole swathes of the New Economy will come under the Bill's coverage. Unified messaging, call centres, tele-banking, e-commerce, tele-trading, tele-medicine, video conferencing etc would require the Centre's nod.

The government's rationale? Chapter 7 of the draft Bill says such a step was taken because of the "necessity of serving the public interest, ensuring competition and preventing monopolies".

The government would also decide on the number of licences to be granted.

But experts say such a move could prove harmful to the high-octane IT industry. It would bring with it memories of red-tape and licence-fee fiasco associated with the licencing regime introduced in the telecom sector. Not only would licencing discourage

Indian IT companies from expanding, licencing might also put off MNCs from shifting operations to India.

Analysts say if Indian companies are forced to obtain a licence to transact electronically or even provide Net content services, they would rather invest or host their servers abroad, where no such permits are required.

The Bill would be referred to the Group of Ministers (GoM) before being tabled in Parliament. This revised version of the Bill incorporates the comments and suggestions received after posting the draft Bill prepared by the sub-group on convergence on the
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One of the key proposals in the draft Bill is the formation of an independent body, the Communications Commission of India—modelled on the US FCC. The body would oversee all regulatory and licensing operations of the telecom, I&B and IT ministries.

                                              
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 Pankaj Kaushal <pankaj at fig.org>
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