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ASSOCHAM National Council on IT / ITes

by Prasad Krishna — last modified Feb 05, 2015 02:56 PM
This meeting was held in New Delhi on January 30, 2015 at ASSOCHAM Corporate Office.

Draft Minutes of Meeting

Meeting Attended by:

  1. Mr. Shashi Mal, Co-Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on IT/ ITES
  2. Mr. T. V. Ramachandran, Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Telecom
  3. Mr. Anupam Aggarwal, TCS
  4. Mr. Anthony Thomas, Vodafone India Ltd.
  5. Ms. Geetha Hariharan, The Centre for Internet & Society
  6. Mr. Sreedhar.C, Amara Raja
  7. Mr. Naveen Tandon, AT&T India
  8. Mr. Nripendra Singh , Ernst & Young LLP
  9. Mr. S. Chandrasekhar, Microsoft
  10. Mr. Akhilesh Tuteja, KPMG
  11. Mr. Pankaj Sharma, CA Technologies
  12. Mr. Sanjay Sarma, Design Worldwide
  13. Mr. Subhodeep Jash, DUA Consultant
  14. Mr. Ashok Sud, AUSPI
  15. Mr. Ashis Mukherjee, WIPRO
  16. Mr. Saurabh Joshi, Accenture
  17. Ms. Ambika Khurana, IBM
  18. Mr. Sumit Monga, R Com
  19. Cmde Shyam Kaushal, wimax
  20. Mr. Jitender Singh, Qualcomm
  21. Mr. Vikram Tiwathia, COAI
  22. Mr. Ranjeet Goshwami, TCS
  23. Mr. Sant Pratap Singh Matta, Railtel Corporation
  24. Mr. Kinshuk De, TCS
  25. Mr. T R Dua, TAIPA
  26. Mr. B B Anand, AUSPI
  27. Mr. Dilip Sahay, AUSPI
  28. Mr. Nitin Wali, Verisign
  29. Mr. A.k. Gidwani, BPCL
  30. Mr. Harsh Rastogi, TUV Rheinland India
  31. Mr. Sanjeev Arora, Vodafone
  32. Mr. Anil Prakash, ITU/APT Foundation
  33. Mr. Avik Banerjee, DEN Networks
  34. Ms. Neelima Agrawal, LUXURY CHRONICLE
  35. Ms. Amrita Jagatdeo, Bihang Welfare Association
  36. Mr. Minushri Madhumita, Bihang Welfare Association
  37. Mr. Varun Aggarwal, ASSOCHAM
  38. Mr. Parag Tripathi, ASSOCHAM
  39. Mr. Ashish Malik, ASSOCHAM

The Meeting started with the Chairman of the Meeting Shri Shashi Mal, Co-Chairman, ASSOCHAM IT/ITes Council & Director & Industry Leader, IBM India welcoming the Members present.

Mr. Mal introduced the topic of discussion and its importance in the present context.

Mr. Mal pointed out that internet has touched every aspect of life and has significant stake in almost every business in the present times.

He further pointed out two main points, how internet can be managed and how do you legally govern the activities going on the internet. He suggested approaching all interest groups for their views before we make the recommendations.

He emphasized that the consensus has to be build within the stakeholders of the subject and informed that for this ASSOCHAM is planning to organize INDIA INTERNET GOVERNANCE SUMMIT (IIGS)-2015 on 26th March, 2015 in New Delhi.

Mr. T. V. Ramachandran, Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Telecommunications said that there are many opinions within the stakeholders. He said that India, with maximum numbers of users has the right to be heard in the international forums.  He further said that Industry should have an active participation in the policy making.

Mr. Vikram Tiwathia, COAI asked why ASSOCHAM is organizing this program and who has mandated them to do so and why they want to send the recommendations to the Government.

It was informed that ASSOCHAM has already announced in the Ministry of External Affairs Meeting and the National Security Council Secretariat that ASSOCHAM will be creating a forum where all the stakeholders could present their point of view and proceedings of this Summit will be shared with the Government as the Recommendations.

Mr. Vikram Tiwathia to this replied that there are many stakeholders like civil society, academia, but ASSOCHAM should present the view of the Industry only.

Mr. Mal suggested that there might be different views within the Industry on Internet Governance.

Mr. Tiwathia informed the Members present that Department of Electronics and IT, Government of India has constituted a Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) for the India Internet Governance Forum but had met only twice. He suggested taking MAG outside the Deity to a more autonomous body. He also suggested that India should sign the Budapest Convention (or what are the obstacles in signing the Budapest Convention).

One of the Members present suggested coming up with commercially accepted views for Internet Growth usage and Protection of Investors along with steps for Principle for Self Regulations.

One of the Members also brought out the Hygine Part of the Internet ie how internet is being used today.

It was decided that the following major issues in the Internet Governance will be discussed with Political, Technical & Economic aspects.

  • Cyber Security
  • Cyber Policy
  • Access
  • Diversity
  • Emerging issues like e-Commerce

It was decided that the Members will email their inputs on the above points to ASSOCHAM latest by Monday, 9th February, 2015. A core group is being constituted with the following Members to further develop on the issues from the inputs received by 14th February, 2015.

Core Group Members:

  • Mr. Anupam Agarwal, TCS
  • Mr. Anthony Thomas, Vodafone India
  • Ms. Geetha Hariharan, The Centre for Internet & Society
  • Mr. Akhilesh Tuteja, KPMG
  • Mr. Dilip Sahay, AUSPI
  • Mr. Jitendra Singh, Qualcomm
  • Mr. Vikram Tiwathia, COAI

It was suggested that ASSOCHAM should engage a Knowledge Partner to collate and make the Report/ Background Paper on the subject by 1st Week of March 2015.

There are Speakers and Sponsorship Opportunities for which you could also forward your suggestions to ASSOCHAM at the earliest.

It was decided that ASSOCHAM will prepare the rough draft of Program Agenda & Circulate among Members

The Meeting ended with thanks to the Chair.

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