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IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69B Rules: Draft and Final Version Comparison
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-b-draft-and-final-version-comparison
<b>Jadine Lannon has performed a clause-by-clause comparison of the Draft 69B Rules and official 69B Rules under Section 69B in order to better understand how the two are similar and how they differ. Notes have been included on some changes we deemed to be important.</b>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">There has been a considerable amount of re-arrangement and re-structuring of the various clauses between the 69B Draft Rules and the official Rules, as can be seen in the comparison chart, but very little content has been changed. The majority of the changes made to the official Rules are changes in wording and language that serve to provide some much-needed clarification to the Draft Rules (see the differences between Clause (9) of the Draft Rules and sub-section (4) of Clause (3) of the official Rules as an example). Language redundancies, as well as full clauses (Clause [6] of the Draft Rules) have been thankfully removed in the official Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Aside from the addition of four definitions, including a definition for a “security policy”, a phrase which appears in the Draft Rules without being defined, Clause (2) contains what is most likely one of the more noteable changes between the two definitions: under sub-section (g) in the 69 Rules, the words “or unauthorised use” have been added to the definition of “cyber security breaches”, which significantly increases the scope of what can be considered a cyber security breach under the Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A significant change between the two sets of rules can be found in sub-section (2) of Clause (8) of the official rules, which states that, “<i>save as otherwise required for the purpose of any ongoing investigation, criminal complaint or legal proceedings </i>the intermediary or the person in-charge of computer resource shall destroy records pertaining to directions for monitoring or collection of information”. The section in italics has been added to the original Clause (22) of the Draft Rules, meaning that when the Rules were originally drawn up, no exceptions were to be made for the destructions of the records for the issuing of directions for monitoring and/or the collected information. They would simply have to be destroyed within six months of the discontinuance of the monitoring/collection.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">One change that may or may not be significant is the replacement of the words “established violations” in the Draft Rules to simply “violation” in the official Rules in Clauses (19)/(6), which deal with the responsibility of the intermediary. This could be taken to mean that suspected and/or perceived violations may also be punishable under this clause, but this is a hard stance to argue. Most likely the adjustment was made when those superfluous and/or convoluted parts of the Draft rules were being removed.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-b-draft-and-final-version-comparison'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-b-draft-and-final-version-comparison</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineInternet GovernanceInformation Technology2013-04-30T09:47:46ZBlog EntryIT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69 Rules: Draft and Final Version Comparison
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison
<b>Jadine Lannon has performed a clause-by-clause comparison of the Draft 69 Rules and official 69 Rules under Section 69B in order to better understand how the two are similar and how they differ. Very brief notes have been included on some changes we deemed to be important.
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Similar to the other comparisons that I have done on the 69A and 69B Draft and official Rules, the majority of the changes between these two sets of rules serves to restructure and clarify various clauses in the Draft 69 Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Three new definitions appear in the Clause (2) of the 69 Rules, including a definition for “communication”, which appears in the Draft Rules but has no associated definition under Clause (2) of the Draft Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Clause (31) of the Draft Rules, which deals with the requirement of security agencies of the State and Union territories to share any information gathered through interception, monitoring and/or decryption with federal agencies, does not make an appearance in the official rules. Further, this necessity does not seem to be implied anywhere in the official 69 Rules.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison</a>
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No publisherjdineInternet GovernanceIntermediary LiabilityInformation Technology2013-04-30T09:56:07ZBlog EntryIndian Telegraph Act, 1885, 419A Rules and IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69 Rules
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-telegraph-act-419-a-rules-and-it-amendment-act-69-rules
<b>Jadine Lannon has performed a clause-by-clause comparison of the 419A Rules of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the 69 Rules under Section 69 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 in order to better understand how the two are similar and how they differ. Though they are from different Acts entirely, the Rules are very similar. Notes have been included on some changes we deemed to be important. </b>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Though they are from different Acts entirely, the 419A Rules from the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 and the 69 Rules from the Information Technology (Amended) Act, 2008 are very similar. In fact, much of the language that appears in the official 69 rules is very close, if not the same in many places, as the language found in the 419A rules. The majority of the change in language between the 419A Rules and the equivalent 69 Rules acts to clarify statements or wordings that may appear vague in the former. Aside from this, it appears that many of the 69 Rules have been cut-and-pasted from the 419A Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Arguably the most important change between the two sets of rules takes place between Clause (3) of the 419A Rules and Clause (8) of the 69 Rules, where the phrase “while issuing directions [...] the officer shall consider possibility of acquiring the necessary information by other means” has been changed to “the competent authority shall, <i>before issuing</i> any direction under Rule (3), consider possibility of acquiring the necessary information by other means”. This is an important distinction, as the latter requires other options to be looked at before issuing the order for any interception or monitoring or decryption of any information, whereas the former could possibly allow the interception of messages while other options to gather the “necessary” information are being considered. It seems unreasonable that the state and various state-approved agencies could possibly be intercepting the personal messages of Indian citizens in order to gather “necessary” information without having first established that interception was a last resort.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another potentially significant change between the rules can be found between Clause (15) of the 419A Rules, which states, in the context of punishment of a service provider, the action taken shall include “not only fine but also suspension or revocation of their licenses”, whereas Clause (21) of the 69 Rules states that the punishment of an intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources “shall be liable for any action under the relevant provisions of the time being in force”. This is an interesting distinction, possibly made to avoid issues with legal arbitrariness associated with assigning punishments that differ for those punishments for the same activities laid out under the Indian Penal Code. Either way, the punishments for a violation of the maintenance of secrecy and confidentiality as well as unauthorized interception (or monitoring or decryption) could potentially be much harsher under the 69 Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the same vein, the most significant clarification through a change in language takes place between Clause (10) of the 419A and Clause (14) of the 69 Rules: “the service providers shall designate <i>two senior executives</i> of the company” from the 419A Rules appears as “every intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource shall designate <i>an officer to receive requisition, and another officer to handle such requisition</i>” in the 69 Rules. This may be an actual difference between the two sets of Rules, but either way, it appears to be the most significant change between the equivalent Clauses.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The addition of certain clauses in the 69 Rules can also give us some interesting insights about what was of concern when the 419A rules were being written. To begin, the 419A rules provide no definitions for any of the specific terms used in the Rules, whereas the 69 Rules include a list of definitions in Clause (2). Clause (4) of 69 Rules, which deals which the authorisation of an agency of the Government to perform interception, monitoring and decryption, is sorely lacking in the 419A rules, which alludes to “authorised security [agencies]” without ever providing any framework as to how these agencies become authorised or who should be doing the authorising.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 69 Rules also include Clause (5), which deals with how a state should go about obtaining authorisation to issue directions for interception, monitoring and/or decryption in territories outside of its jurisdiction, which is never mentioned in 419A rules, lamely sentencing states to carry out the interception of messages only within their own jurisdiction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Lastly, Clause (24), which deals with the prohibition of interception, monitoring and/or decryption of information without authorisation, and Clause (25), which deals with the prohibition of the disclosure of intercepted, monitored and/or decrypted information, have fortunately been added to the 69 Rules.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-telegraph-act-419-a-rules-and-it-amendment-act-69-rules'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-telegraph-act-419-a-rules-and-it-amendment-act-69-rules</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineInternet Governance2013-04-30T10:04:38ZBlog EntryRule 419A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/rule-419-a-indian-telegraph-rules-1951
<b>The Central Government made the following rules to amend the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>G.S.R. 193 (E).</b>— In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 7 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (13 of 1885), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, namely:—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">10 (1) These rules may be called the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">20 In the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, after rule 419, the following rule shall be substituted, namely:—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> 419-A. (1) Directions for interception of any message or class of messages under sub-section (2) of Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (hereinafter referred to as the said (Act) shall not be issued except by an order made by the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the case of Government of India and by the Secretary to the State Government in-charge of the Home Department in the case of a State Government. In unavoidable circumstances, such order may be made by an officer, not below the rank of a Joint Secretary to the Government of India, who has been duly authorized by the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary, as the case may be:</p>
<p>Provided that in emergent cases—</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(i) in remote areas, where obtaining of prior directions for interception of messages or class of messages is not feasible; or<br />(ii) for operational reasons, where obtaining of prior directions for interception of message or class of messages is not feasible;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">the required interception of any message or class of messages shall be carried out with the prior approval of the Head or the second senior most officer of the authorized security <i>i.e.</i> Law Enforcement Agency at the Central Level and the officers authorised in this behalf, not below the rank of Inspector General of Police at the state level but the concerned competent authority shall be informed of such interceptions by the approving authority within three working days and that such interceptions shall be got confirmed by the concerned competent authority within a period of seven working days. If the confirmation from the competent authority is not received within the stipulated seven days, such interception shall cease and the same message or class of messages shall not be intercepted thereafter without the prior approval of the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary, as the case may be.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) Any order issued by the competent authority under sub-rule (1) shall contain reasons for such direction and a copy of such order shall be forwarded to the concerned Review Committee within a period of seven working days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) While issuing directions under sub-rule (1) the officer shall consider possibility of acquiring the necessary information by other means and the directions under sub-rule (1) shall be issued only when it is not possible to acquire the information by any other reasonable means.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(4) The interception directed shall be the interception of any message or class of messages as are sent to or from any person or class of persons or relating to any particular subject whether such message or class of messages are received with one or more addresses, specified in the order, being an address or addresses likely to be used for the transmission of communications from or to one particular person specified or described in the order or one particular set of premises specified or described in the order.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(5) The directions shall specify the name and designation of the officer or the authority to whom the intercepted message or class of messages is to be disclosed and also specify that the use of intercepted message or class of messages shall be subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 5 of the said Act.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(6) The directions for interception shall remain in force, unless revoked earlier, for a period not exceeding sixty days from the date of issue and may be renewed but the same shall not remain in force beyond a total period of one hundred and eighty days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(7) The directions for interception issued under sub-rule (1) shall be conveyed to the designated officers of the licensee(s) who have been granted licenses under Section 4 of the said Act, in writing by an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police or Additional Superintendent of Police or the officer of the equivalent rank.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(8) The officer authorized to intercept any message or class of message shall maintain proper records mentioning therein, the intercepted message or class of messages, the particulars of persons whose message has been intercepted, the name and other particulars of the officer or the authority to whom the intercepted message or class of messages has been disclosed, the number of copies of the intercepted message or class of messages made and the mode or the method by which such copies are made, the date of destruction of the copies and the duration within which the directions remain in force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(9) All the requisitioning security agencies shall designate one or more nodal officers not below the rank of Superintendent of Police or Additional Superintendent of Police or the officer of the equivalent rank to authenticate and send the requisitions for interception to the designated officers of the concerned service providers to be delivered by an officer not below the rank of Sub-lnspector of Police.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(10) The service providers shall designate two senior executives of the company in every licensed service area/State/Union Territory as the nodal officers to receive and handle such requisitions for interception.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(11) The designated nodal officers of the service providers shall issue acknowledgment letters to the concerned security and Law Enforcement Agency within two hours on receipt of intimations for interception.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(12) The system of designated nodal officers for communicating and receiving the requisitions for interceptions shall also be followed in emergent cases/unavoidable cases where prior approval of the competent authority has not been obtained.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(13) The designated nodal officers of the service providers shall forward every fifteen days a list of interception authorizations received by them during the preceding fortnight to the nodal officers of the security and Law Enforcement Agencies for confirmation of the authenticity of such authorizations. The list should include details such as the reference and date of orders of the Union Home Secretary or State Home Secretary, date and time of receipt of such orders and the date and time of Implementation of such orders.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(14) The service providers shall put in place adequate and effective internal checks to ensure that unauthorized interception of messages does not take place and extreme secrecy is maintained and utmost care and precaution is taken in the matter of interception of messages as it affects privacy of citizens and also that this matter is handled only by the designated nodal officers of the company.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(15) The service providers are responsible for actions for their employees also. In case of established violation of license conditions pertaining to maintenance of secrecy and confidentiality of information and unauthorized interception of communication, action shall be taken against the service providers as per Sections 20, 20-A, 23 & 24 of the said Act, and this shall include not only fine but also suspension or revocation of their licenses.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(16) The Central Government and the State Government, as the case may be, shall constitute a Review Committee. The Review Committee to be constituted by the Central Government shall consist of the following, namely:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(a) Cabinet Secretary — Chairman</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(b) Secretary to the Government of India Incharge, Legal Affairs — Member</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(c) Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Telecommunications — Member</p>
<p>The Review Committee to be constituted by a State Government shall consist of the following, namely:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(a) Chief Secretary — Chairman</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(b) Secretary Law/Legal Remembrancer Incharge, Legal Affairs — Member</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px; ">(c) Secretary to the State Government (other than the Home Secretary) — Member</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(17) The Review Committee shall meet at least once in two months and record its findings whether the directions issued under sub-rule (1) are in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 5 of the said Act. When the Review Committee is of the opinion that the directions are not in accordance with the provisions referred to above it may set aside the directions and orders for destruction of the copies of the intercepted message or class of messages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(18) Records pertaining to such directions for interception and of intercepted messages shall be destroyed by the relevant competent authority and the authorized security and Law Enforcement Agencies every six months unless these are, or likely to be, required for functional requirements.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(19) The service providers shall destroy records pertaining to directions for interception of message within two months of discontinuance of the interception of such messages and in doing so they shall maintain extreme secrecy.</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>].Subs, by G.S.R. 193 (E), dated 1.3.2007 (w.e.f. 12.3.2007).</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/rule-419-a-indian-telegraph-rules-1951'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/rule-419-a-indian-telegraph-rules-1951</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineInternet Governance2013-11-19T07:16:04ZPageIT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69A Rules: Draft and Final Version Comparison
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-a-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison
<b>Jadine Lannon has performed a clause-by-clause comparison of the 69A draft rules and 69A rules for Section 69A of the IT Act in order to better understand how the two differ. While there has been reshuffling of the clauses in the official rules, the content itself has not changed significantly. Notes have been included on some changes we deemed to be important.</b>
<p>Below is a chart depicting the 69A Draft Rules and the 69A Rules:</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">There was a lot of structural change between the draft rules and the official rules—many of the draft clauses were shuffled around and combined—but not a lot of change in content. Many of the changes that appear in the official rules serve to clarify parts of the draft rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Three definitions were added under clause (2), two to clarify later references to a “designated officer” and a “nodal officer” and the third to indicate a form appended to the official Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Clause (3) of the official rules then clarifies who shall be named the “designated officer”, which was not done in the draft rules as there was no inclusion of an official title of the officer who would have the responsibilities of the “designated officer”. Interestingly, clause (3) of the draft rules requires the Secretary of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India to name an officer, whereas clause (3) of the official rules states that the “Central Government” shall designate an officer, a change in language that allows for much more flexibility on the government's part.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Clause (5) in the draft rules and clause (4) in the official rules deal with the designation of a Nodal Officer, but omitted in the official rules are responsibilities of the designated officer, which includes acting on the “direction of the indian competent court”. This responsibility does not appear in any part of the official rules. Further, clause (4) of the official rules requires the organizations implicated in the rules to publish the name of the Nodal Officer on their website; this is an addition to the draft rules, and a highly useful one at that. This is an important move towards some form of transparency in this contentious process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Clause (5) of the official rules significantly clarifies clause (4) of the draft rules by stating that the designated officer may direct any Agency of the Government or intermediary to block access <i>once a request from the Nodal Officer has been received</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Clause (7) of the official rules uses the word “information” instead of “computer resource”, which is used in the corresponding clause (12) in the draft rules, when referring to the offending object. This change in language significantly widens the scope of what can be considered offending under the rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) of clause (9) of the official rules are additions to the draft rules. Sub-section (2) is a significant addition, as it deals with the ability of the Secretary of the Department of Information Technology's ability to block for public access any information or part thereof without granting a hearing to the entity in control of the offending information <i>in a case of emergency nature. </i>The request for blocking will then be brought before the committee of examination of request <i>within 48 hours of the issue of direction</i>, meaning that the offending information could be blocked for two days without giving notice to the owner/controller of the information of the reason for the blockage.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An important clarification has been included in clause (15) of the official rules, which differs from clause (23) of the draft rules through the inclusion of the following phrase: “The Designated Officer shall maintain complete record of the <i>request received and action taken thereof </i>[...] of the cases of blocking for public access”. This is a significant change from clause (23), which simply states that the “Designated Officer shall maintain complete <i>record</i> [...] of the cases of blocking”. This could be seen as an important step towards transparency and accountability in the 69B process of blocking information for public access if clause (16) of the official rules did not state that all requests and complaints received and all actions taken thereof must be kept confidential, so the maintenance of records mentioned in clause (15) of the official rules appears to be only for internal record-keeping. However, just the fact that this information is being recording is a significant change from the draft rules, and may, if the sub-rules relating to confidentiality were to be changed, be useful data for the public.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-a-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-a-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineIT ActInternet Governance2013-04-30T10:10:48ZBlog EntryInformation Technology (Procedure and safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information) Rules, 2009
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguard-for-monitoring-and-collecting-traffic-data-or-information-rules-2009
<b>Draft Rules under section 69B of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 as notified by the Central Government. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>G.S.R. 782 (E).</b>—<b> </b>In exercise of the power conferred y clause (za) of sub-section (2) of section 87, read with sub-section (3) of section 69B of the Information Technology Act 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:—</p>
<p><b>1. Short title and commencement.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) These rules may be called the Information Technology (Procedure and safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information) Rules, 2009.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>2. Definitions.</b>— In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(a) “Act” means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(b) “communication” means dissemination, transmission, carriage of information or signal in come manner and include both a direct communication and an indirect communication;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(c) “communication link” means the use of satellite, microwave, radio, terrestrial line, wire, wireless or any other communication media to inter-connect computer resource;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(d) “competent authority” means the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Information Technology under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology;</p>
<p>(e) “computer resource” means computer resource as defined in clause (k) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(f) “cyber security incident” means any real or suspected adverse event in relation to cyber security that violates an explicitly or implicitly applicable security policy resulting in unauthorised access, denial of service/disruption, unauthorised use of a computer resource for processing or storage of information or changes to data, information without authorisation;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(g) “cyber security breaches” means unauthorised acquisition or unauthorised use by a person of data or information that compromises the confidentiality, integrity or availability of information maintained in a computer resource;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(h) “information” means information as defined in clause (v) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(i) “information security practices” means implementation of security policies and standards in order to minimize the cyber security incidents and breaches;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(j) “intermediary” means an intermediary as defined by clause (w) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(k) “monitor” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes to view or inspect or to record or collect traffic data or information generated, transmitted, received or stored in a computer resource by means of a monitoring device;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(l) “monitoring device” means any electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, electro-magnetic, optical or other instrument, device, equipment or apparatus which is used or can be used, whether by itself or in combination with any other instrument, device, equipment or apparatus, to view or inspect or record or collect traffic data or information;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(m) “port” or “application port” means a set of software rules which identifies and permits communication between application to application, network to network, computer to computer, computer system to computer system;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(n) “Review Committee” means the Review Committee constituted under rule 419A of Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(o) “security policy” means documented business rules and processes for protecting information and the computer resource;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(p) “traffic data” means traffic data as defined in <i>Explanation (ii) </i>to section 69B of the Act.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>3. Directions for monitoring.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) No directions for monitoring and collection of traffic data or information under sub-section (3) of section 69B of the Act shall be issued, except by an order made by the competent authority.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) The competent authority may issue directions for monitoring for any or all of the following purposes related to cyber security, namely:-</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(a) forecasting of imminent cyber incidents;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(b) monitoring network application with traffic data or information on computer resource;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(c) identification and determination of viruses or computer contaminant;</p>
<p>(d) tracking cyber security breaches or cyber security incidents;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(e) tracking computer resource breaching cyber security or spreading virus or computer contaminants;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(f) identifying or tracking of any person who has breached, or is suspected of having breached or being likely to breach cyber security;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(g) undertaking forensic of the concerned computer resource as a part of investigation or internal audit of information security practices in the computer resources;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(h) accessing a stored information for enforcement of any provisions of the laws relating to cyber security for the time being in force;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(i) any other matter relating to cyber security.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) Any direction issued by the competent authority under sub-rule (2) shall contain reasons for such direction and a copy of such direction shall be forwarded to the Review Committee withing a period of seven working days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(4) The direction of the competent authority for monitoring and collection of traffic data or information may include the monitoring and collection of traffic data or information from any person or class of persons or relating to any particular subject whether such traffic data or information, or class of traffic data of information, are received with one or more computer resources, being a computer resource likely to be used for generation, transmission, receiving, storing of traffic data or information from or to one particular person or one or many set of premises.</p>
<p><b>4. Authorised agency of government for monitoring and collection of traffic data or information.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) The competent authority may authorise any agency of the government for monitoring and collection of traffic data or information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) The agency authorised by the competent authority under sub-rule (1) shall designated one or more nodal officer, not below the rank of Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, for the purpose to authenticate and send the requisition conveying direction issued under rule 3 to the designated officers of the concerned intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) The requisition under sub-rule (2) shall specify the name and designation of the officer or the agency to whom the monitored or collected traffic data or information is to be disclosed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(4) The intermediaries or person in-charge of computer resource shall designate one or more officers to receive requisition and to handle such requisition from the nodal officer for monitoring or collection of traffic data or information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(5) The requisition conveying directions for monitoring shall be conveyed to the designated officers of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources, in writing through letter or fax by the nodal officer or delivered, (including delivery by email signed with electronic signature), by an officer not below the rank of Under Secretary or officer of the equivalent rank.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(6) The nodal officer issuing the requisition conveying directions for monitoring under sub=rule (2) shall also make a request in writing to the designated officer of intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource for monitoring in accordance with the format indicated in such requisition and report the same to the officer designated under sub-rule (3).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(7) The nodal officer shall also make a request to the officer of intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource designated under sub-rule (4) to extend all facilities, co-operation and assistance in installation, removal and testing of equipment and also enable online access or to secure and provide online access to the computer resource for monitoring and collecting traffic data or information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(8) On receipt of requisition under sub-rule (2) conveying the direction issued under sub-rule (2) of rule 3 the designated officer of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource designated under sub-rule (4) shall acknowledge the receipt of requisition by way of letter or fax or electronically signed e-mail to the nodal officer within a period of two hours from the time of receipt of such requisition.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(9) The officer of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource designed under sub-rule (4) shall maintain proper records of the requisitions received by him.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(10) The designated officer of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource shall forward in every fifteen days a list of requisition conveying direction for monitoring or collection of traffic data or information to the nodal officer which shall include details such as the reference and date of requisition conveying direction of the concerned competent authority.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>5. Intermediary to ensure effective check in handling monitoring or collection of traffic data or information.</b>— The intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall put in place adequate and effective internal checks to ensure that unauthorised monitoring or collection of traffic data or information does not take place and extreme secrecy is maintained and utmost care and precaution is taken in the matter of monitoring or collection of traffic data or information as it affects privacy of citizens and also that this matter is handled only by the designated officer of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>6. Responsibility of intermediary.</b>— The intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource shall be responsible for the actions of their employees also, and in case of violation of the provision of the Act and rules made thereunder pertaining to maintenance of secrecy and confidentiality of information or any unauthorised monitoring or collection of traffic data or information, the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource shall be liable for any action under the relevant provision of the laws for the time being in force.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>7. Review of directions of competent authority.</b>— The Review Committee shall meet at least once in two months and record its finding whether the directions issued under sub-rule (2) of rule 3 are in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 69B of the Act and where the Review Committee is of the opinion that the directions are not in accordance with the provisions referred to above, it may set aside the directions and issue order for destruction of the copies, including corresponding electronic record of the monitored or collected traffic data or information.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>8. Destruction of records.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) Every record, including electronic records pertaining to such directions for monitoring or collection of traffic data shall be destroyed by the designated officer after the expiry of a period of nine months from the receipt of direction or creation of record, whichever is later, except in a case where the traffic data or information is, or likely to be, required for functional requirements.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) Save as otherwise required for the purpose of any ongoing investigation, criminal complaint or legal proceedings the intermediary or the person in-charge of computer resource shall destroy records pertaining to directions for monitoring or collection of information within a period of six months of discontinuance of the monitoring or collection of traffic data and in doing so they shall maintain extreme secrecy.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>9. Prohibition of monitoring or collection of traffic data or information without authorisation.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) Any person who, intentionally or knowingly, without authorisation under sub-rule (2) of rule 3 or sub-rule (1) of rule 4, monitors or collects traffic data or information, or attempts to monitor or collect traffic data or information, or authorises or assists any person to monitor or collect traffic data or information in the course of its occurrence or transmission at any place within India, shall be proceeded against, punished accordingly under the relevant provisions of the law for the time being in force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) the monitoring or collection of traffic data or information in computer resource by the employee of an intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource or a person duly authorised by the intermediary, may be undertaken in course of his duty relating to the services provided by that intermediary, if such activities are reasonably necessary for the discharge his duties as per the prevailing industry practices, in connection with the following matters, namely:—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(i) installation of computer resource or any equipment to be used with computer resource; or</p>
<p>(ii) operation or maintenance of computer resource; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(iii) installation of any communication link or software either at the end of the intermediary or subscriber, or installation of user account on the computer resource of intermediary and testing of the same for its functionality;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(iv) accessing stored information from computer resource relating to the installation, connection or maintenance of equipment, computer resource or a communication link or code; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(v) accessing stored information from computer resource for the purpose of--</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(a) implementing information security practices in the computer resource;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(b) determining any security breaches, computer contaminant or computer virus;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(c) undertaking forensic of the concerned computer resource as a part of investigation or internal audit; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(vi) accessing or analysing information from a computer resource for the purpose of tracing a computer resource of any person who has contravened, or is suspected of having contravened or being likely to contravene, any provision of the Act that is likely to have an adverse impact on the services provided by the intermediary.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) The intermediary or the person in-charge of computer resource and its employees shall maintain strict secrecy and confidentiality of information while performing the actions as specified under sub-rule (2).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(4) The details of monitored or collected traffic data or information shall not be used or disclosed by intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource or any of its employees to any person other than the intended recipient of the said information under sub-rule (2) of rule 4. Any intermediary or its employees of person in-charge of computer resource who contravenes the provisions of this rule shall be proceeded against and punished accordingly under the relevant provisions of the Act or any other law for the time being in force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>10. Prohibition of disclosure of traffic data or information by authorised agency.</b>— The details of monitored or collected traffic data or information shall not be used or disclosed by the agency authorised under sub-rule (1) of rule 4 for any other purpose, except for forecasting imminent cyber threats or general trend of port-wise traffic on Internet, or general analysis of cyber incidents, or for investigation or in judicial proceedings before the competent court in India.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>11. Maintenance of confidentiality.</b>— Save as otherwise provided in rule 10, strict confidentiality shall be maintained in respect of directions for monitoring or collection of traffic data or information issued by the competent authority under these rules.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguard-for-monitoring-and-collecting-traffic-data-or-information-rules-2009'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguard-for-monitoring-and-collecting-traffic-data-or-information-rules-2009</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineIT ActInternet Governance2013-04-25T04:49:05ZPageInformation Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguards-for-interception-monitoring-and-decryption-of-information-rules-2009
<b>Rules under section 69(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2008 (after the 2008 amendment).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">G.S.R. 780 (E).— In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (y) of sub-section (2) of section 87, read with sub-section (2) of section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:</p>
<p>1. <b>Short title and commencement.</b>—</p>
<p>(1) These rules may be called the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.</p>
<p>(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.</p>
<p>2. <b>Definitions.</b>— In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,--</p>
<p>(a) “Act” means the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000);</p>
<p>(b) “communication” means dissemination, transmission, carriage of information or signal in some manner and include both a direct communication and an indirect communication”;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(c) “communication link” means the use of satellite, microwave, radio, terrestrial line, wire, wireless or any other communication media to inter-connect computer resource;</p>
<p>(d) “competent authority” means--</p>
<p>(i) the Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, in case of the Central Government; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(ii) the Secretary in charge of the Home Department, in case of a State Government or Union territory, as the case may be;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(e) “computer resource” means computer resource as defined in clause (k) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(f) “decryption” means the process of conversion of information in non-intelligible form to an intelligible form via a mathematical formula, code, password or algorithm or a combination thereof;</p>
<p>(g) “decryption assistance” means any assistance to--</p>
<p>(i) allow access, to the extent possible, to encrypted information; or</p>
<p>(ii) facilitate conversion of encrypted information into an intelligible form;</p>
<p>(h) “decryption direction” means a direction issued under Rule (3) in which a decryption key holder is directed to--</p>
<p>(i) disclose a decryption key; or</p>
<p>(ii) provide decryption assistance in respect of encrypted information</p>
<p>(i) “decryption key” means any key, mathematical formula, code, password, algorithm or any other data which is used to--</p>
<p>(i) allow access to encrypted information; or</p>
<p>(ii) facilitate the conversion of encrypted information into an intelligible form;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(j) “decryption key holder” means any person who deploys the decryption mechanism and who is in possession of a decryption key for purposes of subsequent decryption of encrypted information relating to direct or indirect communications;</p>
<p>(k) “information” means information as defined in clause (v) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(l) “intercept” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any information through the use of any means, including an interception device, so as to make some or all of the contents of an information available to a person other than the sender or recipient or intended recipient of that communication, and includes--</p>
<p>(a) monitoring of any such information by means of a monitoring device;</p>
<p>(b) viewing, examination or inspection of the contents of any direct or indirect information; and</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(c) diversion of any direct or indirect information from its intended destination to any other destination to any other destination;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(m) “interception device” means any electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, electro-magnetic, optical or other instrument, device, equipment or apparatus which is used or can be used, whether by itself or in combination with any other instrument, device, equipment or apparatus, to intercept any information; and any reference to an “interception device” includes, where applicable, a reference to a “monitoring device”;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(n) “intermediary” means an intermediary as defined in clause (w) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Act;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(o) “monitor” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes to view or to inspect or listen to or record information by means of a monitoring device;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(p) “monitoring device” means any electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, electro-magnetic, optical or other instrument, device, equipment or apparatus which is used or can be used, whether by itself or in combination with any other instrument, device, equipment or apparatus, to view or to inspect or listen to or record any information;</p>
<p>(q) “Review Committee” means the Review Committee constituted under rule 419A of Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">3. <b>Direction for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information.</b>— No person shall carry out the interception or monitoring or decryption of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource under sub-section (2) of section 69 of the Act, except by an order issued by the competent authority;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Provided that in an unavoidable circumstances, such order may be issued by an officer, not below the rank of Joint Secretary of the Government of India, who has been duly authorised by the competent authority;</p>
<p>Provided further that in a case of emergency--</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(i) in remote areas, where obtaining of prior directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of information is not feasible; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(ii) for operational reasons, where obtaining of prior directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information generation, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource is not feasible,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">the interception or monitoring of decryption of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource may be carried out with the prior approval of the Head or the second senior most officer of the security and law enforcement agency (hereinafter referred to as the said security agency) at the Central level and the officer authorised in this behalf, not below the rank of the inspector General of Police or an officer of equivalent rank, at the State or Union territory level;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Provided also that the officer, who approved such interception or monitoring or decryption of information in case of emergency, shall inform in writing to the competent authority about the emergency and of such interception or monitoring or decryption within three working days and obtain the approval of the competent authority thereon within a period of seven working days and if the approval of competent authority is not obtained within the said period of seven working days, such interception or monitoring or decryption shall cease and the information shall not be intercepted or monitored or decrypted thereafter without the prior approval of the competent authority.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">4. <b>Authorisation of agency of Government.</b>— The competent authority may authorise an agency of the Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt information generated, transmitted received or stored in any computer resource for the purpose specified in sub-section (1) of section 69 of the Act.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">5. <b>Issue of decryption direction by competent authority.</b>— The competent authority may, under Rule (3), give any decryption direction to the decryption key holder for decryption of any information involving a computer resource or part thereof.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">6. <b>Interception or monitoring or decryption of information by a State beyond its jurisdiction.</b>— Notwithstanding anything contained in Rule (3), if a State Government or Union territory Administration requires any interception or monitoring or decryption of information beyond its territorial jurisdiction, the Secretary in-charge of the Home Department in that State or Union territory, as the case may be, shall make a request to the Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India for issuing direction to the appropriate authority for such interception or monitoring or decryption of information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">7. <b>Contents for direction.</b>— Any direction issued by the competent authority under Rule (3) shall contain reasons for such direction and a copy of such direction shall be forwarded to the Review Committee within a period of seven working days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">8. <b>Competent authority to consider alternative means in acquiring information.</b>— The competent authority shall, before issuing any direction under Rule (3), consider possibility of acquiring the necessary information by other means and the direction under Rule (3) shall be issued only when it is not possible to acquire the information by any other reasonable means.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">9. <b>Direction of interception or monitoring or decryption of any specific information.</b>— The direction of interception or monitoring or decryption of any information generation, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource shall be of any information as is sent to or from any person or class of persons or relating to any particular subject whether such information or class of information are received with one or more computer resources, or being a computer resource likely to be used for the generation, transmission, receiving, storing of information from or to one particular person or one or many set of premises, as may be specified or described in the direction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">10. <b>Direction to specify the name and designation of the officer to whom information to be disclosed.</b>— Every directions under Rule (3) shall specify the name and designation of the officer of the authorised agency to whom the intercepted or monitored or decrypted or stored information shall be disclosed and also specify that the use of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information shall be subject to the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 69 of the said Act.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">11. <b>Period within which direction shall remain in force.</b>— The direction for interception or monitoring or decryption shall remain in force, unless revoked earlier, for a period not exceeding sixty days from the date of its issue and may be renewed from time to time for such period not exceeding the total period of one hundred and eighty days.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">12. <b>Authorised agency to designate nodal officer.</b>— The agency authorised by the competent authority under Rule (4) shall designate one or more nodal officer, not below the rank of Superintendent of Police or Additional Superintendent of Police or the officer of the equivalent rank to authenticate and send the requisition conveying direction issued under Rule (3) for interception or monitoring or decryption to the designated officers of the concerned intermediaries or person in-charge of computer resource;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Provided that an officer, not below the rank of Inspector of Police or officer of equivalent rank, shall deliver the requisition to the designated officer of the intermediary.</p>
<p>13. <b>Intermediary to provide facilities, etc.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) The officer issuing the requisition conveying direction issued under Rule (3) for interception or monitoring or decryption of information shall also make a request in writing to the designated officers of intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources, to provide all facilities, co-operation and assistance for interception or monitoring or decryption mentioned in the directions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) On the receipt of request under sub-rule (1), the designated officers of intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources, shall provide all facilitates, co-operation and assistance for interception or monitoring or decryption of information mentioned in the direction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) Any direction of decryption of information issued under Rule (3) to intermediary shall be limited to the extent the information is encrypted by the intermediary or the intermediary has control over the decryption key.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">14. <b>Intermediary to designate officers to receive and handle.</b>— Every intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource shall designate an officer to receive requisition, and another officer to handle such requisition, from the nodal officer for interception or monitoring or decryption of information generation, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">15. <b>Acknowledgement of instruction.</b>— The designated officer of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall acknowledge the instructions received by him through letters or fax or e-mail signed with electronic signature to the nodal officer of the concerned agency within two hours on receipt of such intimation or direction for interception or monitoring or decryption of information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">16. <b>Maintenance of records by designated officer.</b>— The designated officer of intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource authorised to intercept or monitor or decrypt any information shall maintain proper records mentioning therein, the intercepted or monitored or decrypted information, the particulars of persons, computer resource, e-mail account, website address, etc. whose information has been intercepted or monitored or decrypted, the name and other particulars of the officer or the authority to whom the intercepted or monitored or decrypted information has been disclosed, the number of copies, including corresponding electronic records of the intercepted or monitored or decrypted information made and the mode of the method by which such copies, including corresponding electronic records are made, the date of destruction of the copies, including corresponding electronic record and the duration within which the directions remain in force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">17. <b>Decryption key holder to disclose decryption key or provide decryption assistance.</b>— If a decryption direction or a copy thereof is handed to the decryption key holder to whom the decryption direction is addressed by the nodal officer referred to in Rule (12), the decryption key holder shall within the period mentioned in the decryption direction--</p>
<p>(a) disclose the decryption key; or</p>
<p>(b) provide the decryption assistance,</p>
<p>specified in the decryption direction to the concerned authorised person.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">18. <b>Submission of the list of interception or monitoring or decryption of information.</b>— <br />(1) The designated officers of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall forward in every fifteen days a list of interception or monitoring or decryption authorisations received by them during the preceding fortnight to the nodal officers of the agencies authorised under Rule (4) for confirmation of the authenticity of such authorisations. <br />(2) The list referred to in sub-rule (1) shall include details, such as the reference and date of orders of the concerned competent authority including any order issued under emergency cases, date and time of receipt of such order and the date and time of implementation of such order.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">19. <b>Intermediary to ensure effective check in handling matter of interception or monitoring or decryption of information.</b>— The intermediary or the person in-charge of the computer resource so directed under Rule (3), shall provide technical assistance and the equipment including hardware, software, firmware, storage, interface and access to the equipment wherever requested by the agency authorised under Rule (4) for performing interception or monitoring or decryption including for the purposes of--</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(i) the installation of equipment of the agency authorised under Rule (4) for the purposes of interception or monitoring or decryption or accessing stored information in accordance with directions by the nodal officer; or</p>
<p>(ii) the maintenance, testing or use of such equipment; or</p>
<p>(iii) the removal of such equipment; or</p>
<p>(iv) the performance of any action required for accessing of stored information under the direction issued by the competent authority under Rule (3).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">20. <b>Intermediary to ensure effective check in handling matter of interception or monitoring or decryption of information.</b>— The intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall put in place adequate and effective internal checks to ensure the unauthorised interception of information does not take place and extreme secrecy is maintained and utmost care and precaution shall be taken in the matter of interception or monitoring or decryption of information as it affects privacy of citizens and also that it is handled only by the designated officers of the intermediary and no other person of the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall have access to such intercepted or monitored or decrypted information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">21. <b>Responsibility of intermediary.</b>— The intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall be responsible for any action of their employees also and in case of violation pertaining to maintenance of secrecy and confidentiality of information or any unauthorised interception or monitoring or decryption of information, the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall be liable for any action under the relevant provisions of the laws for the time being in force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">22. <b>Review of directions of competent authority.</b>— The Review Committee shall meet at least once in two months and record its findings whether the directions issued under Rule (3) are in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 69 of the Act and where the Review Committee is of the opinion that the directions are not in accordance with the provisions referred to above, it may set aside the directions and issues order for destruction of the copies, including corresponding electronic record of the intercepted or monitored or decrypted information.</p>
<p>23. <b>Destruction of records of interception or monitoring or decryption of information</b>.—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) Every record, including electronic records pertaining to such directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of information and of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information shall be destroyed by the security agency in every six months except in a case where such information is required, or likely to be required for functional requirements.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) Save as otherwise required for the purpose of any ongoing investigation, criminal complain or legal proceedings, the intermediary or person in-charge of computer resources shall destroy records pertaining to directions for interception of information within a period of two months of discontinuance of the interception or monitoring or decryption of such information and in doing so they shall maintain extreme secrecy.</p>
<p><b> </b>24. <b>Prohibition of interception or monitoring or decryption of information without authorisation.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) Any person who intentionally or knowingly, without authorisation under Rule (3) or Rule (4), intercepts or attempts to intercept, or authorises or assists any other person to intercept or attempts to intercept any information in the course of its occurrence or transmission at any place within India, shall be proceeded against and punished accordingly under the relevant provisions of the laws for the time being in force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) Any interception, monitoring or decryption of information in computer resource by the employee of an intermediary or person in-charge of computer resource or a person duly authorised by the intermediary, may be undertaken in course of his duty relating to the services provided by that intermediary, if such activities are reasonably necessary for the discharge his duties as per the prevailing industry practices, in connection with the following matters, namely--</p>
<p>(i) installation of computer resource or any equipment to be used with computer resource; or</p>
<p>(ii) operation or maintenance of computer resource; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(iii) installation of any communication link or software either at the end of the intermediary or subscriber, or installation of user account on the computer resource of intermediary and testing of the same for its functionality;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(iv) accessing stored information from computer resource relating to the installation, connection or maintenance of equipment, computer resource or a communication link or code; or</p>
<p>(v) accessing stored information from computer resource for the purpose of--</p>
<p>(a) implementing information security practices in the computer resource;</p>
<p>(b) determining any security breaches, computer contaminant or computer virus;</p>
<p>(c) undertaking forensic of the concerned computer resource as a part of investigation or internal audit; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(vi) accessing or analysing information from a computer resource for the purpose of tracing a computer resource of any person who has contravened, or is suspected of having contravened or being likely to contravene, any provision of the Act that is likely to have an adverse impact on the services provided by the intermediary.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) The intermediary or the person in-charge of computer resource and its employees shall maintain strict secrecy and confidentiality of information while performing the actions specified under sub-rule (2).</p>
<p>25. <b>Prohibition of disclosure of intercepted or monitored decrypted information.</b>—</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(1) The contents of intercepted or monitored or stored or decrypted information shall not be used or disclosed by intermediary or any of its employees or person in-charge of computer resource to any person other than the intended recipient of the said information under Rule (10).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(2) The contents of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information shall not be used or disclosed by the agency authorised under Rule (4) for any other purpose, except for investigation or sharing with other security agency for the purpose of investigation or in judicial proceedings before the competent court in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(3) Save as otherwise provided in sub-rule (2), the contents of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information shall not be disclosed or reported in public by any means, without the prior order of the competent court in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(4) Save as otherwise provided in sub-rule (2), strict confidentiality shall be maintained in respect of direction for interception, monitoring or decryption issued by concerned competent authority or the nodal officers.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguards-for-interception-monitoring-and-decryption-of-information-rules-2009'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguards-for-interception-monitoring-and-decryption-of-information-rules-2009</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineIT ActInternet Governance2013-07-06T01:51:58ZPageWomen in the IT Industry: Request for Data
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-the-it-industry
<b>For CIS's research on indicators of female economic empowerment in the IT industry in India, we have sent formal request for participation in a short survey to the six largest IT companies based in India. A copy of the letter of request and survey as well as some details of the request for data can be found in this post. </b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to see the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/letter-of-survey.pdf" class="internal-link">Letter of Survey Request</a> and the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/income-bracket.pdf" class="internal-link">Income Bracket Form</a></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As introduced in an earlier <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-indias-it-industry" class="internal-link"><b>blog</b></a>, CIS has begun a short research project on female employees in the IT industry in India. This project aims to gather quantitative and qualitative data on women employed by the six largest Indian software companies in order to generate insight into whether or not these employers foster workplaces that are conducive to female economic empowerment. We have decided to gather some very basic quantitative data for this project by directly asking each of these companies to provide some information on data points that we deemed important indicators of women-friendly workplaces. This request has been carried out via post and, when possible, electronic mail.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In this letter of request, we have asked each of the companies to provide information on the number of women they employ, how much paid leave employees are allocated per month and per year, whether or not they have any complaints committees in place as per the Vishaka guidelines, and whether or not they offer any support for childcare or childcare services on their worksites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further, we also requested that they complete a form listing ascending monthly incomes (from below Rs. 19,999 to above Rs. 1.5 crore) by filling in how many female and male employees they employ in each income bracket. A copy of the letter and the form are attached to this blog post.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Each of these letters was addressed to the Chief Human Resources Officer (or equivalent title) at the corporate headquarters, and mailed as Registered Post, Acknowledgement Due on February the 19<sup>th</sup>, 2013. We plan to send two more copies of this letter on the same date for the next two months.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The contacts and addresses that these letters were sent to are listed below. All of this information was gathered from publicly available sources.</p>
<p><b>Tech Mahindra Ltd.:</b><br />Contact:<br />Sujitha Karnad - Senior Vice President: HR & QMG for IT Services<br />Address:<b><br />Tech Mahindra Limited, </b>Department of Human Resources<br />Sharda Centre, Off Karve Road,<br /> Pune 411004, Maharashtra<br /> India</p>
<p><b>Mahindra Satyam:</b><br />Contact:<br />Hari Thalapalli - Chief Marketing Officer and Chief People Officer<br />Address:<b><br />Satyam Computer Services Limited</b>, Department of Human Resources<br />Mahindra Satyam Technology Center<br /> Survey No.62/1A, Qutubullapaur Mandal<br /> Bahadurpally Village, RR Dist<br /> Hyderabad 500043</p>
<p><b>HCL Technologies Ltd.:</b><br />Contact:<br />Prithvi Shergill - Chief Human Resources Officer<br />Address:<br />HCL Technologies Limited, Department of Human Resources<br />A-104, Sector 58, Noida<br />Uttar Pradesh, 201 303<br />India</p>
<p><b>Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.:</b><br />Contact:<br />Ajoyendra Mukherjee - Executive Vice President & Head, Global Human Resources<br />Address:<br />Tata Consultancy Services, Department of Human Resources<br />TCS House,<br />Raveline street,<br />Fort, Mumbai, 400 001<br />India</p>
<p><b>Infosys Ltd.:</b><br />Contact:<br />Nandita Gurjar - Group Head of Human Resources<br />Address:<br />Infosys Limited, Department of Human Resources<br />Electronics City, Hosur Road<br />Bangalore, 560 100<br />India</p>
<p><b>Wipro Ltd.:</b><br />Contact:<br />Pratik Kumar - Executive Vice President, Human Resources<br />Address:<br />Wipro Limited, Department of Human Resources<br />Doddakannelli<br /> Sarjapur Road<br /> Bangalore, 560 035<br /> India</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further, emails were sent out and calls were made to the media contacts of each company requesting the contact information (email addresses in particular) of any relevant HR personnel and/or any individuals that may be able to provide us with the requested information. From the information gathered in this exercise, various Human Resources staff members from Wipro, HCL Technologies and TCS received the appeal to provide the requested information via email on the 11<sup>th</sup> of February.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have not yet received any replies to either the email or post requests for information.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-the-it-industry'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-the-it-industry</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineInternet Governance2013-03-06T10:52:00ZBlog EntryResearch Initiative: Women in India's IT Industry
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-indias-it-industry
<b>CIS has begun a brief research project which will examine indicators of female economic empowerment in the IT industry in India. Though the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data from the six largest publicly-traded Indian software companies, we hope to provide insight into state of female employment in one of the most important and rapidly growing economic sectors in the country. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The recent events and subsequent discussions surrounding the brutal gang rape and murder of a young Delhi woman on a bus last December in Munirka, New Delhi, have prompted dialogue in mainstream discourses about the position of women in India, and have lead many to scrutinize the treatment of women within various spheres of Indian society. What has become increasingly apparent following the events of December 16<sup>th</sup> is that effective longterm change for Indian women cannot be achieved by harsher consequences or more rigorous transport regulations, but instead through widespread recognition of the routine discrimination faced by Indian women in their public, private and professional lives. The latter sphere is of particular interest to the Indian context, as although the last two decades have seen an unprecedented number of Indian women enter the formal workforce, issues of female economic empowerment tend to get downplayed when juxtaposed against the entirety of the system of discrimination and violence faced by women in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As a brief foray into the reality of female economic empowerment in India, CIS has decided to carry out a small though hopefully telling research project on some of the largest corporate players in the Indian IT industry. The aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of the state of female employment, gender equality and the qualitative experience of being a working woman in one of the most important<strong> </strong>and rapidly growing economic sectors in the country.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Using NASSCOM's annual industry ratings from 2007-2012,<a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a> we put together a list of the six software companies headquartered in India that appeared in the top five spots at least twice between the years 2007-2012. These companies are Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Wipro Ltd., HCL Tech Ltd., Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam. Through formal requests for data and a handful of qualitative interviews, we will be gathering information from these companies and their employees that will eventually by compiled into a short report that will be publicly available on our website.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">(A brief explanation of why we chose to use NASSCOM's industry list can be found at the end of this article,<a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2] </a>along with some notes on the change of ownership of Mahindra Satyam and its merger with Tech Mahindra).<a name="fr3" href="#fn3">[3] </a></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Why the IT Industry?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In 2012, an international consulting and management firm called Booz & Company released “The Third Billion”, a global ranking of the level of economic empowerment attained by woman on 128 countries. The indicators used included equal pay for equal work, non-discrimination policies, the male-to-female-male employee ratio, and equality in terms of female managers and senior business leaders.<a name="fr4" href="#fn4">[4] </a>India rated quite poorly at spot 115.<a name="fr5" href="#fn5">[5] </a>Further, the International Labour Force recently reported that the rate of female participation in the total labour force<a name="fr6" href="#fn6">[6] </a>in India has fallen from 37% in 2004-05 to 29% in 2009-10, leaving India at the 11th lowest spot out of 131 countries.<a name="fr7" href="#fn7">[7] </a>Despite these declining rates, it was estimated in 2010 that approximately 5.5 million Indian women were entering the formal workforce each year at that period in time,<a name="fr8" href="#fn8">[8] </a>and though the aforementioned statistics likely indicate that a larger proportion of men are entering the formal workforce each year than women, this is a significant amount of employees, many of whom will be facing a unique set of challenges in the workplace simply because of their gender. In fact, research done by the Centre for Talent Innovation has found that 55% of female Indian employees routinely encounter such severe bias in the workplace that they disengage from their work or consider dropping out altogether.<a name="fr9" href="#fn9">[9]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is where the IT industry comes in. From an aggregate revenue of USD 3.9 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 1998<a name="fr10" href="#fn10">[10]</a> to more than USD 100 billion in FY2012,<a name="fr11" href="#fn11">[11]</a> the Indian IT-BPO industry has been growing exponentially over the last 15 years, and it continues to be one of the fastest growing sectors in the Indian economy. Further, it has rapidly become one of the most economically significant industries in India in terms of share of total exports (approximately 25% for FY2012)<a name="fr12" href="#fn12">[12]</a> export revenue (USD 69.1 billion and growing by more than 16%)<a name="fr13" href="#fn13">[13]</a> and proportion of national GDP (from 1.2% in FY1998 to 7.5% in FY2012).<a name="fr14" href="#fn14">[14]</a> IT services alone account for more than half of the software and services exports in the industry, and is the fastest growing segment of the sector at 18%.<a name="fr15" href="#fn15">[15] </a>Further, NASSCOM estimates that the sector will create 230,000 jobs in FY2012,<a name="fr16" href="#fn16">[16]</a> increasing the number of individuals employed directly in India's IT-BPO industry to about 2.8 million individuals.<a name="fr17" href="#fn17">[17]</a> The industry is estimated to indirectly employ another 8.9 million people.<a name="fr18" href="#fn18">[18]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Because the IT industry in India is such an important source of employment for young Indian professionals (the median age of IT-BPO employees in India was about 24<a name="fr19" href="#fn19">[19]</a> in 2011), and because an unprecedented amount of those young professionals are women (women made up 42% of India's college graduates in 2010, and that figure was expected to continue to rise),<a name="fr20" href="#fn20">[20]</a> IT companies have the potential to become leading examples of women-friendly employers. However, according to DataQuest's Best Employer Survey 2012, the percentage of women employed in the IT industry in India has actually decreased from 26% in 2010 to 22% in 2012<a name="fr21" href="#fn21">[21]</a> even though the number of jobs created in this sector continues to increase annually. Again, these statistics most likely point to a larger number of males available for employment than females (and therefore a larger proportion of men being employed), but they also show that the number of women employed in the IT sector is not significantly increasing (or even increasing at all).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Considering, then, how important the IT industry may be for the employment of young female professionals (and if it is not now, it will be soon), the responsibility to create nondiscriminatory and comfortable workplace environments should fall heavily on the largest and most economically significant companies in the software sector, as they have the opportunity to set precedents not only for the rest of the industry but for Indian employers as a whole.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">How are these industry giants faring in terms of the treatment of their female employees?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To commence this research, I have collected some basic facts about the Board of Directors and executive management teams of the six Indian IT companies off of their websites and annual reports. This brief preliminary foray into the industry has revealed that although many of these companies promote gender equality in the workplace and women in senior positions of authority, the Indian software sphere continues to be almost entirely male-dominated.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The collected statistics on Board members and executive management teams are listed below. It bears keeping in mind that while the information on the Board of Directors may be quite reliable (depending on how recently each company has updated their website) and therefore appropriate to use as a tool of comparative analysis, the information on the executive management teams can be misleading, as each company appears to have a different criteria of what constitutes a senior management team (for example, Tata Consultancy Services lists two individuals, their CEO and CFO, as their executive management team, but Wipro Ltd. lists 24 individuals from a variety of different departments).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Because we were not certain of how recently each company had updated its website, we have prioritized the data on the Boards from their annual Investor's Reports over the information available on their websites.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Tata Consultancy Services Limited</strong><br />TCS' annual report for the 2011-2012 fiscal year reports a 14 member Board of Directors with one female non-executive director. This woman is not Indian. The report also lists a 28-member strong management team with two female members, and their website lists</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of women on the Board: 1/14</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Number of women holding executive management positions: 2/30</li></ul>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Infosys Limited</strong><br />Infosys Ltd. has 15 Board members: six executive members, none of which are women; one male chairperson; and eight non-executive independent members, one of whom is a woman, but not an Indian woman.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Further, Infosys lists 14 individuals in their executive management team,<a name="fr22" href="#fn22">[22]</a> one of whom is a woman. It is interesting to note that this female member is the group head of Human Resources as well as being one of five senior Vice Presidents.<a name="fr23" href="#fn23">[23]</a> Infosys also has an Executive Council made up of 13 members, including one Indian woman.</p>
<p>Number of women on the Board: 1/15<br />Number of women holding executive management positions: 1/14</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Wipro Limited</strong><br />Wipro's Board of Directors is made up of 12 men: one executive chairman, two executive directors, and nine independent directors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As for their executive management team, the website lists 24 executive leaders, two of whom are women.<a name="fr24" href="#fn24">[24]</a> Wipro also has a Corporate Executive Council of six men.</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of women on Board: 0/12</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Number of women in executive management team: 2/23</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>HCL Tech Limited</strong><br />HCL's Board has nine members, two of whom are executive members. The other seven members are listed as being independent, non-executive members. One of these non-executive members is a woman; she is not Indian.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">On their website<a name="fr25" href="#fn25">[25]</a> they list 18 members of their leadership team, none of whom are female.</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of women on Board: 1/9</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Number of women holding executive management positions: 0/18</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Tech Mahindra</strong><br />On Tech Mahindra's Board of Directors sits a non-executive chairman, one executive member, six non-executive independent members, and three non-executive directors. None of these individuals are female. On their website, seven employees appear to make up the leadership team of this company, one of whom is a woman. Interestingly, this individual is also the head of HR.<a name="fr26" href="#fn26">[26]</a></p>
<ul>
<li>Number of women on Board: 0/11</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Number of women holding executive management positions: 1/7</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Mahindra Satyam</strong><br />According to their 2011-2012 annual report, Mahindra Satyam's Board of Directors boosts 6 members: a male chairman, one male CEO, and four non-executive board members, one of whom is an Indian woman.</p>
<p>Further, there appears to be six members of the leadership team<a name="fr27" href="#fn27">[27]</a> including the CEO, none of whom are female.</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of women on Board: 1/6</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Number of women holding executive management positions: 0/6</li></ul>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Summary of Board of Director Data </strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Number of female chairpersons in the 6 largest IT companies in India: 0/6</li></ul>
<ul>
<li> Number of women seated on the Board of Directors of the top 6 IT companies in India: 4/67 </li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Executive (excluding chairmen/vice-chairmen): 0/14</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Non-Executive (excluding chairmen/vice-chairmen): 4/47</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Female Indian members: 1/4</li></ul>
<ul>
<li>Number of female employees in senior management positions: 6/98</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While these numbers may be sobering, they are not exceptionally low, or even below average. According to The Globe and Mail's 11<sup>th</sup> annual Board Games report on corporate governance, the percentage of Board seats held by women on Boards of Directors in the Indian corporate sector in 2012 was 5.3%, meaning that, at an approximately 6% of seats held by female members, our very small sample size is actually sitting just above the Indian average. However, when compared to the other BRIC countries at 5.1%, 5.9% and 8.5% respectively,<a name="fr28" href="#fn28">[28]</a> India is still lagging behind when it comes to having women in positions of senior authority in the corporate world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Further, considering that these are the largest corporate IT companies in the industry, and the majority carry out activities across the globe, they probably have, on average, larger and more diverse Boards of Directors than our average mid- to large-sized Indian software company. Further, two out of six companies do not even have one female member on their Board. As for those remaining four, it is likely that these companies may be the exception and not the rule when it comes to the number of women on the Boards in the Indian IT.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As for executive management, the world average for the percentage of women in senior management roles was 21% in 2012, a meagre increase from the global average of 19% in 2004.<a name="fr29" href="#fn29">[29]</a> The same study that produced these figures also found that the proportion of women holding senior management positions in India was 14%, placing the data from our sample size way below the curve at approximately 6%. However, due to issues discussed earlier in this post, this figure is not an accurate representation of the executive management teams of all six companies; future research will hopefully provide us with more factual statistics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is not to say that the IT sector in India is the only industry that should be concerned with its low rates of female employment and attainment of seniority, nor should its industry giants be the only corporate entities publicly scrutinized in this manner. The economic empowerment of women in India is an on-going struggle that is played out in many spheres in the Indian society, including the non-profit sector. In fact, if we perform a similar breakdown of CIS' Board of Directors and staff, the results are comparable to those of the IT companies:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">According to our 2011-2012 annual report, our Board of Directors boosts 8 members, two of whom are executive members of CIS' management team. One of these individuals is an Indian woman.</p>
<p>Further, of our 14 staff members, four are women.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>]. NASSCOM. 2012. <em>Industry Rankings: Top 20 Players in IT Services. </em>[online] Retrieved from<em> </em><a href="http://www.nasscom.org/industry-ranking">http://www.nasscom.org/industry-ranking</a> on January 21st, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn2" href="#fr2">2</a>]. The NASSCOM industry ranking is a well-regarded annual ranking of the IT sector in India that is often used as a resource in various research initiatives and similar publications, and it appears to be widely accepted as a legitimate ranking by both those within the industry and by entities from other sectors. The ranking is determined using revenue information provided by each company for their activities in India, which we thought was a strong indicator of their significance to the industry and the Indian economic engine as a whole. Finally, NASSCOM carries out this ranking each year, which will allow us to use a similar methodology in choosing our research subjects should we choose to reproduce this research annually.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn3" href="#fr3">3</a>]. If you look at the NASSCOM list of top 20 for 2007-2008, you will see that a company called Satyam Computer Services. This company was taken over by the Mahindra Group in 2009, and was rebranded as Mahindra Satyam to reflect its new parent company. This is why Mahindra Satyam is included in our list, though it first appeared on the NASSCOM Industry Rankings for the 2011-2012 fiscal year; we counted the appearance of Satyam Computer Services in the fourth spot in the rankings for 2007-2008 as a point towards Mahindra Satyam.<br /><br />Further, it was announced in March of 2012 that Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra would be merging; however, this had not yet happened by the end of the 2012 fiscal year and therefore we will treat Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra as separate and independent entities in this research project.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn4" href="#fr4">4</a>]. Aquirre, D., Hoteit, L., Rupp, C., & Sabbaugh, K. 2012. <em>Empowering the Third Billion: Women and the World of Work in 2012. </em>[pdf] Booz & Company. Accessible at: http://bit.ly/SXdZ6P</p>
<p>[<a name="fn5" href="#fr5">5</a>]. ibid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn6" href="#fr6">6</a>]. The rate of female labour participation indicates the proportion of the female population above the age of 15 that supplies labour for the production of goods and services on the formal market in a given time period.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn7" href="#fr7">7</a>]. International Labour Organization. February 13, 2013. <em>India: Why is Women's Labour Force Participation Dropping? </em>[online]<em> </em>Retrieved from <a href="http://bit.ly/11EGYCM">http://bit.ly/11EGYCM</a> on February 22<sup>nd</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn8" href="#fr8">8</a>]. Hewlett, S. A., Fredman, C., Leader-Chivee, L., & Rashid, R. 2010. <em>The Battle for Female Talent in India</em>. New York: Center for Work-Life Policy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn9" href="#fr9">9</a>]. Hewlett, S. A. November 1, 2012. “More Women in the Workforce Could Raise GDP by 5%.” <em>Harvard Business Review. </em> [online] Retrieved from <a href="http://bit.ly/YrxyFA">http://bit.ly/YrxyFA</a> February 23<sup>rd</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn10" href="#fr10">10</a>]. Embassy of India. 2007. <em>India's Information Technology Industry. </em>[online] Retrieved from<em> </em><a href="http://www.indianembassy.org/indiainfo/india_it.htm">http://www.indianembassy.org/indiainfo/india_it.htm</a> on February 23<sup>rd</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn11" href="#fr11">11</a>]. NASSCOM. 2012. <em>Indian IT-BPO Industry. </em>[online] Retrieved from <a href="http://www.nasscom.in/indian-itbpo-industry">http://www.nasscom.in/indian-itbpo-industry</a> on February 24<sup>th</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn12" href="#fr12">12</a>]. ibid.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn13" href="#fr13">13</a>]. ibid.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn14" href="#fr14">14</a>]. ibid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn15" href="#fr15">15</a>]. NASSCOM. 2012. <em>IT Services. </em>[online] Retrieved from <a href="http://www.nasscom.in/it-services">http://www.nasscom.in/it-services</a> on February 25<sup>th</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn16" href="#fr16">16</a>]. NASSCOM. 2012. <em>Indian IT-BPO Industry. </em> [online] Retrieved from <a href="http://www.nasscom.in/indian-itbpo-industry">http://www.nasscom.in/indian-itbpo-industry</a> on February 24<sup>th</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn17" href="#fr17">17</a>]. ibid.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn18" href="#fr18">18</a>]. ibid.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn19" href="#fr19">19</a>]. Business Standard. January 31, 2011. <em>Employee Retention Key Challenge for IT, BPO Cos.</em> [online] Retrieved from <a href="http://bit.ly/13sCizA">http://bit.ly/13sCizA</a> on February 24<sup>th</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn20" href="#fr20">20</a>]. Hewlett, Sylvia A. & Rashid, Ripa. December 3, 2010. “India's Crown Jewels: Female Talent.” <em>Harvard Business Review.</em> [online] Retrieved from <a href="http://bit.ly/gpv7CQ">http://bit.ly/gpv7CQ</a> on February 23<sup>rd</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn21" href="#fr21">21</a>]. Sharma, P. October 29, 2012. “Gender Inclusivity, Still a Key Challenge.” <em>DataQuest. </em>[online] Retrieved from <a href="http://bit.ly/TPkz1F">http://bit.ly/TPkz1F</a> on February 19<sup>th</sup>, 2013.</p>
<p>[<a name="fn22" href="#fr22">22</a>]. Information retrieved from: http://infy.com/cVfEwp</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn23" href="#fr23">23</a>]. According to the Grant Thornton International Business Report for 2012, the majority of women employed in senior management positions are heads/directors of Human Resources (21%). It has been argued that women tend to get employed in Human Resources due to a perceived “natural transfer of skills”--meaning that women are believed to be pre-disposed to excel at Human Resources-related tasks and responsibilities simply because of the experiences and norms of their gender. For a more profound discussion of this phenomenon, please visit: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=533345673</p>
<p>[<a name="fn24" href="#fr24">24</a>]. Information retrieved from: http://bit.ly/13sBtXJ</p>
<p>[<a name="fn25" href="#fr25">25</a>]. Information retrieved from: http://bit.ly/Kdm0vP</p>
<p>[<a name="fn26" href="#fr26">26</a>]. Please see footnote 23</p>
<p>[<a name="fn27" href="#fr27">27</a>]. Information retrieved from: http://bit.ly/148kLsv</p>
<p>[<a name="fn28" href="#fr28">28</a>]. Information retrieved from: http://bit.ly/XVvpp3</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn29" href="#fr29">29</a>]. Grant Thornton. 2012. “Women in Senior Management: Still Not Enough.” in <em>Grant Thornton International Business Report 2012. </em>Grant Thornton. [pdf] Accessible at: http://bit.ly/HCjKTG</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-indias-it-industry'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/women-in-indias-it-industry</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineInternet Governance2013-03-06T10:31:48ZBlog Entry001 Specifications Chart
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/001ChartforBlog.png
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/001ChartforBlog.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/001ChartforBlog.png</a>
</p>
No publisherjdine2012-11-27T04:25:34ZImageExploring the Internals of Mobile Devices — Report from a One-day Workshop at TERI
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices
<b>On October 27, 2012, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) organised a one-day workshop on exploring the internals of mobile technologies at the TERI Southern Regional Centre in Bangalore. The workshop received more than 140 registrants, of which approximately 40 attended. In this post, Jadine Lannon explores the discussions and the developments that took place at the workshop.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event brought together professional and non-professional individuals and communities interested in exploring mobile technologies. The aim of the workshop was the provide participants with the knowledge and tools to better understand the internals of mobile technologies as well as familiarize the attendees with CIS's "Pervasive Technologies" research project.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Anil Kumar Pugalia, Sudar Muthu and Pankaj Bharadiya were the expert speakers. The event was supported by the well-established online security, hardware and software domain communities NULL, SecurityXploaded, Computer Club India and Bangalore Android User Group.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Sudar Muthu: Capabilities of Arduino</h3>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14911204" width="427"> </iframe></p>
<div style="text-align: center; "><b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Sudar/capabilities-of-arduino-including-due" target="_blank" title="Capabilities of Arduino (including Due)">Capabilities of Arduino (including Due)</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Sudar" target="_blank">Sudar Muthu</a></b></div>
</td>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>Sudar Muthu began the workshop with a talk on the capabilities of Arduino and the ways in which Arduino can be used to interface with different external devices.</p>
<p>He discussed with us different types of Arduino, the technical specifications of Arduino, the ways that Arduino can be used to interface with external boards and the interfacing that he has been able to accomplish using Arduino and various devices.</p>
<p>The slides from his Powerpoint presentation are viewable on the left.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Anil Kumar Pugalia: Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers</h3>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p> </p>
<p>Anil Kumar Pugalia followed Sudar's presentation with an exploration of methods of mobile hacking using Linux drivers.</p>
<p>He discussed various Linux kernel hacking techniques as well as tools that can be used to perform reverse-engineering on a mobile device.</p>
<p>The slides from Anil's presentation can be accessed on the right.</p>
</td>
<th><iframe frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14917053" width="427"> </iframe>
<div style="text-align: center; "><b><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/anil_pugalia/mobile-hacking" target="_blank" title="Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers">Mobile Hacking using Linux Drivers</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/anil_pugalia" target="_blank">Anil Kumar Pugalia</a></b></div>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following two talks were delivered by Pankaj Bharadiya from Texas Instruments. In his first presentation, he explored hardware hacking and board/chips capabilities. His second talk was on porting open software on hardware. In addition to his discussions, he also covered porting Android on open hardware. The slides from his presentations will be posted shortly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After all the presentations, the participants were invited to handle and open up the 12 mobile devices that CIS purchased for our Pervasive Mobile Technologies research project. The participants worked in teams of two to five members to open up the mobile devices and observe their internals. We asked the participants to record any information about the internals of the mobiles that they were able to find, including the make, model, and serial numbers of the components. Pictures from this part of the workshop will be posted shortly.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">All of the collected information was recorded and distributed among the participants so that the group could continue to work on identifying the mobile internals and the various data sheets associated with each component. This data will be added to the specifications of each mobile device as it is collected. CIS hopes to continue to collaborate with the individuals and communities who participated in this workshop as well as other interested individuals who may have been unable to attend the one-day workshop to proceed with this process of identification. We also hope to hold a second event, a one- to two-day hackathon, sometime in December to continue the exploration of our mobile devices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS would like to thank Anil Kumar Pagalia, Sudar Muthu, Pankaj Bharadiya, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Akash Mahajan (NULL representative), Amit Malik (SecurityXploaded representative), the NULL, SecurityXploaded, Bangalore Android User Group and Computer Club India communities, and all of the participants for making the workshop a huge success and aiding us in our ongoing research project!</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">You can reach participating communities at following links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/11uCKM">http://bit.ly/11uCKM</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/dByU6N">http://bit.ly/dByU6N</a></li>
</ul>
<p>For any further information on the past workshop or future events, please connect with us:</p>
<ol>
<li>Jadine Lannon (<a href="mailto:jadine@cis-india.org">jadine@cis-india.org</a>), research intern for the A2K programme</li>
<li>Amarjit Singh (<a href="mailto:amarjitlife@gmail.com">amarjitlife@gmail.com</a>), the Workshop Manager.</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p><i>Click below for a slideshow of the pictures from the workshop</i>:</p>
<ol>
<hr />
<p>Photos<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15437161" width="476"></iframe></p>
<hr />
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-devices</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2012-12-01T05:57:53ZBlog EntryPervasive Mobile Technologies: Meet Our Mobile Devices!
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices
<b>As a part of the Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace research project, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is researching 12 mobile phone devices to generate a better understanding of the intellectual property (IP) implications of pervasive mobile technologies available in the Indian market. This post is an introduction to our 12 mobile phones.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As detailed in my introductory blog on <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/pervasive-technologies-access-to-knowledge-in-the-market-place">Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace Research Initiative</a>, CIS will be conducting research on mobile technologies as a small off-shoot of the overall project. Pervasive technologies that can be purchased for less than USD 100 play an integral role in bringing access to knowledge to those that routinely face barriers to the consumption of information. However, their legality, particularly in terms of their use of IP, is unclear. In order to better understand the legal environment in which these technologies exist, CIS purchased 12 mobile phones to study the patent implications of their hardware, software and content.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Through examination, research, interviews and consultancies, we hope to create an in-depth documentation of each device, an extensive database or account of the patents implicated, and a number of narrower research avenues on topics related to IP, patents, and mobile technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This blog post will serve as a brief introduction to our mobile devices. The information that I have compiled was discovered through shallow interaction with the phones — turning a device on and exploring the interface and content — which is why the documentation is not particularly extensive at this point. I have had difficulty identifying certain features of some of the phones, like which media formats they support or whether or not they are EDGE<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> — enable, but I am confident that I will be able to ascertain these specifications in the near future; however, certain features, like what OS (operating system) they run on and what chip set they are using, will require collaboration with experts to identify. The exploration is on-going, and more information will be posted as it is discovered.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Aside from all of the usual functions of a mobile phone (making calls, receiving calls, saving numbers, etc.), each of our mobiles devices possess what I have termed the "basics": dual GSM SIM capabilities with dual standby, the ability to connect to 2G networks, GPRS, a WAP browser (except device 011), bluetooth capabilities, a microSD slot, a dual camera (a camera that takes still photos and records video), an FM radio receiver and the ability to play .mp3 audio files and .mp4 video files, record audio and view .jpg images. Each phone also has a handful of various "utilities" and "extras" applications (such as an alarm, a calculator, a calendar, etc.) as well as at least one game. The full specifications of each phone will be provided in the near future, along with further pictures of each device.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As much of the research in this project pertains to the IP implications of the devices, we have decided to withhold the make and model of each device to shield the producers from any negative repercussions that could be the result of our research inquiries. They have been assigned the numeric code names 001 to 012.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to our mobile phones:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">001 - The Classroom in a Box</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 6,300.00 / $113.00</p>
</div>
<p><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Pico-Projector</li>
<li>Analog TV Receiver</li>
<li>MS Office Document Viewer</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/001Front.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="001Front" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This bar-design feature phone has all of the basics with a few added bonuses: an analog TV receiver, viewer, and a built-in pico-projector that projects the mobile's screen onto any surface. Though this phone does not technically fall into our definition of pervasive technologies because of its price, it was the first mobile phone with a built-in pico-projector as well as an analog TV receiver available on the Indian market for less than Rs. 10,000 when it was purchased more than a year ago. Since then, other sub-USD100 pico-projector mobile devices have made an appearance on the Indian market, but each of those devices appear to have been discontinued and 001 continues to be the cheapest pico-projector mobile phone available for purchase.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">002 - The Supercharger</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,499.00 / $45.00</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Solar Panel </li>
<li>Hindi Keyboard</li>
</ul>
<div></div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/002Front.jpg" alt="null" style="float: left; " class="image-inline" title="002Front" /></p>
</th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">002 is a sleek candybar feature phone with a particularly interesting innovation. While it uses a standard lithium-ion battery that can be recharged via connection to a wall socket or electrical device (such as a laptop), it also has a built-in solar panel that can generate some charge as well. The solar panel technology is not yet very efficient—the panel would have to be placed in direct sunlight for multiple hours to fully charge the battery—but it represents an important step towards untethering mobile phones and mobile phone users from costly electricity infrastructure, a development that would have significant implications for rural populations who have unreliable access to electricity.</td>
<th>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/002Back.jpg" alt="null" style="float: right; " class="image-inline" title="002Back" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3></h3>
<h3>003 - The Networker</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,250.00 / $22.00</p>
</div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Wi-Fi</li>
<li>Optical Trackpad</li>
<li>Secondary Forward-facing Camera</li>
<li>Support for 8 Languages</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/003Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="003Front" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>With a boxy, QWERTY-keyboard design and relatively small screen, 003 does not appear, at first glance, to be anymore than an average feature phone — but appearances can be deceiving. With a highly responsive optical trackpad, an analog TV receiver, BlackBerry-esque interface and WiFi capabilities, this mobile device packs some sophisticated technologies and features. Further, it is the only phone in our collection that can connect to the internet using WLAN networks.</p>
<p>Considering that some of the other devices are much more complex — and expensive — than 003, the wide-spread exclusion of WiFi capabilities in our collection is intriguing. Is the choice to include or exclude mobile technology a matter of economics? Are cellular WiFi components expensive, and producers are choosing to exclude WiFi as a method of cutting costs? Is it simply a response to patterns of consumer demand? The WiFi questions will be explored in more depth in up-coming blog posts.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>004 - The Linguist</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,250.00 / $40.00</p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="s1"> </span>Android-like OS</li>
<li>Support for 14 Languages</li>
<li>Secondary Forward-facing Camera</li>
<li>Large Number of Pre-loaded Apps</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/004Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="004Front" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Though it may be hard to believe at first glance, this mobile device was purchased for less than Rs. 2500. With its large internal memory, support for 14 different languages (including Tamil, Bengali and Hindi), and its large array of pre-loaded games and social media applications already set it apart from the less sophisticated mobiles in our collection, 004 also runs on a mysterious Android-like operating system similar to the popular MIUI Android ROM developed by the Chinese-based company Xiaomi Tech. This give it a very sophisticated interface with the look and feel of a smartphone, though the device itself lacks many of the capabilities that are often considered as smartphone criteria (GPS, high-speed internet access, push/pull email, Wi-Fi, an app store, etc.). Because this device, and others like it in our collection, have more sophisticated hardware, software and content than a generic feature phone, but are not as capable as a smartphone, I have taken to calling these devices "semi-smart". <br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>005 - TV on the Go</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,450.00 / $26.00</p>
</div>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="s1"> </span>Analog TV receiver</li>
<li>Arabic Keyboard</li>
<li>Secondary Forward-facing Camera</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/005Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="005Front" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Though it doesn't have any particular innovation that sets it apart from the other devices, 005 is a hardy QWERTY-design feature phone with all of the basics as well as a good collection of social media applications and an analog TV receiver. Though its keyboard can be programmed to write in English, Tamil, Arabic and Hindi script, the buttons have the Arabic <i>abjad</i> on them, which brings up the question of which market this mobile was originally designed for. <br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>006 - The Spy</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,680.00 / $30.00</p>
</div>
<p><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES:</b></span></p>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Secondary “Spy” Camera</li>
<li>Ability to behave as a modem via USB connection</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/006Camera.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="006Camera" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">006 is an interesting candy bar feature phone. On initial examination, this mobile appears to be a completely generic feature phones with all of the basics, but nothing auxiliary. However, a more careful inspection will reveal a secondary camera with an unusual placement — instead of being place at the top of the screen like all of the other secondary cameras found on our devices, this camera is situated on the right hand side of the phone. <br /></td>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_006Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="006Front" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The manufacturer of this device actually refers to this secondary camera as a "spy" camera, and it is truly an appropriate name; from a distance, it looks more like a headphone jack than a camera, and its placement allows for photo and video to be taken without any suspicious movement or positioning by the user. The secondary camera has 1.3 megapixels and can take relatively high resolution photos and videos.</p>
<h3>007 - The Semi-Smartphone</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,150.00 / $39.00</p>
</div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Android-like OS (maybe MIUI)</li>
<li>USB Tethering</li>
<li>Push Email</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/007Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="007Front" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Device 007 is a semi-smart touchscreen phone, and by far the most sophisticated device in our collection. We believe that it uses MIUI OS, which gives it a very similar look to Android and a functionality that is reminiscent of iOSx. While it doesn't have an app store, 007 is jam-packed with pre-loaded applications and can support a wide variety of file formats. Further, while the phone cannot connect to WLAN networks on its own; it can connect to WiFi by tethering to a networked device via USB connection.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>008 - The Trendy</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,350.00 / $42.00</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Android-like OS</li>
<li>Support for 9 languages</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/008Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="008Front" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Another mainstream look-alike, 008 runs the same unidentified OS as device 004 and has similar capabilities. Its plastic casing is a bit flimsy, but its "back", "home" and "list" buttons are touch sensitive. Its sophisticated OS and pre-loaded applications make it a semi-smart device.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>009 - The Boombox</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,420.00 / $26.00</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Huge built-in speaker</li>
<li>Android-like OS</li>
</ul>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/009.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="009Front" /></p>
</th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">Though it is less recognizable than some of the other devices, this mobile may have one of the significant smartphone qualifiers that our other devices lack: an app store — or what appears to be an app store. The app store icon itself is actually the icon for the Android app store, but the interface is completely different, and the only thing available for download is a handful of games. Interestingly enough, many of these games also make appearances on some of the other mobile devices (like fishing joy and tear clothes). Further, I would not call this phone semi-smart, as its interface is not particularly any more sophisticated than some of the other feature phones in our collection.</td>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/009Back.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="009Back" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>009 also features a large built-in speaker, the Opera Mini mobile browser and an Android-like OS, though this OS is less sophisticated than that of 004 and 008.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>010 - 3D</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,440.00 / $26.00</p>
</div>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Android-like OS</li>
<li>Pre-loaded Stereoscopic (3D) videos</li>
<li>Support for 13 languages</li>
</ul>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/0010Front.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="0010Front" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">This semi-smart touchscreen phone also has an Android-like operating system. Though it lacks an app store and push-email, it comes pre-loaded with a veritable smorgasbord of games and social media applications and supports 13 different languages. It also comes with a pair of 3D glasses and two short, very basic pre-loaded stereoscopic videos.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>011 - The Mighty Mini</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 750.00 / $14.00</p>
<p class="p1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Dual GSM SIM support</li>
<li>Best bang-for-your-buck for a basic mobile phone</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/011.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="011" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At Rs. 750, this little feature phone was the least expensive phone we could find that still had almost all of the basics. Even without any extra features, it is still almost Rs. 200 cheaper than the majority of the most basic GSM dual SIM mobiles available on the formal Indian market<a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a>— and, in most cases, 011 has more capabilities than most of those devices. With .mp3 and .mp4 file playback, a dual camera, colour display, a WAP browser, MMS messaging support, two charging ports and Urdu and Hindi language support, this mobile phone personifies affordable accessibility to knowledge and media.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>012 - The Pianist</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 1,550.00 / $28.00</p>
<p class="p1"><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Touch piano</li>
<li>Two charging ports</li>
<li>Support for a multitude of audio, video and image formats</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/012.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="012" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p> </p>
<p>012 is a basic candy bar feature phone with a particularly novel innovation: a touch piano. It is quite sensitive to touch and has a one octave range.</p>
</td>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/012Back.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="012Back" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<h3></h3>
<h3>013 - The Indian Experience</h3>
<div>
<p class="p1">Price: Rs. 2,100.00 / $38.00</p>
</div>
<p><b>KEY FEATURES</b></p>
<ul>
<li>India<b> </b>specific content</li>
<li>Proprietary App Store</li>
</ul>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/013Front.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="013Front" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>This little touchscreen mobile is chockfull of “Indian-specific” content, including an application that links directly to an online portal where consumers can download “Hungama” videos, music and movies onto the phone—for a price. Many of the games also charge a monthly user fee, though interestingly enough, Angry Birds and Talking Tom Cat are pre-loaded and free to play. This phone also has a proprietary app store with a limited amount of mBounce<a href="#fn4" name="fr4">4]</a> applications and games available for purchase. I am not yet sure if this app store can be remotely updated with new apps, but the device can receive data vis USB connection, so it is possible that new applications can be added through direct file transfer.</p>
<p>It also has keyboard support for English, Hindi and Tamil, but the interface cannot be set it appear in anything other than English.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, also known as Enchanced GPRS (EGPRS) is a mobile phone technology that also improved data transmission on GSM networks. It is considered a pre-3G radio technology. Read more about it here: <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution</a><br />[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. Information retrieved from <a href="http://www.flipkart.com/">www.flipkart.com</a>. The prices shown here have been verified as being the same or very similar (though never more expensive) to the prices offered by each brand's official distributors. See Flipkart search links:</p>
<ul>
<li>Mircomax: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/UW3q0U">http://bit.ly/UW3q0U</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Spice Mobility: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/V0DK9i">http://bit.ly/V0DK9i</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Karbonn: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/10DKKbz">http://bit.ly/10DKKbz</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Lava: <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/TSxUzQ">http://bit.ly/TSxUzQ</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a> mBounce Ltd is a Hong Kong-based company that performs a variety of mobile phone application support services like proprietary in-house billing infrastructure for app stores, the pre-loading of applications and app stores, and application creation. They are MediaTek-nominated key partner in providing MRE (Maui Runtime Environment) App Store Solutions, but mBounce applications and software can also be placed on other mobile operating systems. You can read more about mBounce here: <a href="http://www.mbounce.com/?lang=eng&module=ltrbox&menu=m1&content=home">http://www.mbounce.com/?lang=eng&module=ltrbox&menu=m1&content=home</a> and here: http://developer.mediatek.com/mre/en/partner/335</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineFeaturedAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2012-12-21T07:48:40ZBlog EntryICOMM2012: International Communications and Electronics Fair
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report
<b>The seventh India International Communications and Electronics Fair (ICOMM2012) organized by CMAI Association of India was held at the NSIC Expo Grounds in New Delhi from September 14 to 15, 2012. Jadine Lannon attended the event, and shares us with some interesting and exciting new developments in ICT.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For the last seven years, the ICOMM event has been conducted by the Communication Multimedia Applications Infrastructure (CMAI) Association of India.<a href="#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a> Since its first installment in 2006, ICOMM has grown to be a significant international tradeshow that showcases the latest products and technologies from a wide array of Asian mobile, tablets and consumer electronics manufacturers. Over the years, the event has also grown to include various participants from related industries, like service providers, application and software designers, and producers of equipment, components, parts and accessories.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While past ICOMM events had a strict B2B (business to business) structure, ICOMM2012 was the first year that the tradeshow was open to the public, making it India’s first consumer mobile and tablet exhibition. This B2B/C2B strategy appeared to be largely successful—the event received a high amount of traffic, especially from young people, and plans for the 8th ICOMM in 2013 involve an increase in event scale through integration with the India Telecom 2013 tradeshow.<a href="#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The main themes of ICOMM2012 were mobiles, tablets, and consumer electronics, though applications, accessories, and various related technologies and industries were also featured. The event hosted a large diversity of participants, from leading Indian brands like Micromax, Lava International, Karbonn and Maxx Mobile to smaller Indian and international brands such as GlobyTalky, Skymobiles, Gionee, Ivio, Belphone and Signal. A huge array of devices and innovations were featured at ICOMM2012, many of which are still prototypes. Here are some of the innovations and booths that caught my eye:</p>
<table class="invisible">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/ubslife.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Datawind" /></th>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>Datawind Ltd. occupied a popular booth with the release of four new 7-inch UbiSlate tablets<a href="#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a> UbiSlate 7Ci, 7C+, 7Ri and 7R+. These sophisticated Android devices function as both tablets and smartphones, support WiFi and GPRS connections, and are the only Android devices on the Indian market to feature Datawind’sUbiSurfer browser. The UbiSlate 7+ devices can now be pre-ordered for between Rs. 3,499 and Rs. 4,799.</p>
<p>I was able to interview Mr. Jasjit Singh, the Executive Vice President of Datawind, on the UbiSlate tablets. A link to this interview will be provided in the near future.</p>
<p>ICOMM2012 actually saw the launch of fair number of new devices onto the Indian market. One of the most prominent launches was SMSInfosys’<a href="#fn4" name="fr4">[4]</a> new product line of mobile, tablet, and computer devices under the brand GlobyTalky.<a href="#fn5" name="fr5">[5]</a> This “GlobyTalky” brand originally began as a mobile application called “GlobyTalky – Connected Life”, a multi-platform RCSe application that boasts multiple communication and sharing features. The application, brand and devices are the brainchildren of Imtiaz Ahmed, the founder of SMSInfosys.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The GlobyTalky launch was distinguished by the wide array of devices that were released. The brand features a good selection of feature phones, smartphones and tablets, as well as two laptops (I was unable to get a picture of the laptops). Each of the GlobyTalky mobile and tablet devices feature the GlobyTalky – Connected Life application. Two phones are of particular interest in the photo below—the thin light blue phone with the long blue strap and the dark blue candy bar-style phone on the right.</p>
<table class="listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/LightBlue.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Light Blue" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: justify; ">The light blue phone is about the size of a credit card and 5.6 mm thick. It was advertised as a “back-up” phone that one could keep in their wallet and use when their main phone failed, and was priced at Rs. 1000-1200. The dark blue phone, called the G-Aqua, is completely waterproof—it can function perfectly while submerged in water, and can survive submersion of up to 1.5 meters without taking any damage. It can even receive calls, play music, and take pictures while underwater. It can be seen again in white in the picture below.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Whitephone.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="White Phone" /></p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>According to Mr. Ahmed, 60 per cent of the mobile devices that are brought into services centers in India have water damage, which is what motivated him to create a completely waterproof phone for the Indian market. He estimates that it will be priced between Rs. 4,200 and Rs. 4,500.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">GlobyTalky was not the only participant that showcased a waterproof phone, though. IVIO, a mobile brand owned by the Indonesian company PT. Intersys, was also giving demonstrations on their waterproof smartphone, the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/water.png" class="internal-link">DG68</a>. With its sleek design, 4.1-inch high-resolution screen, 3G and Wifi capabilities, capacitate touch and Android 4.0 OS, the DG68 is a much more sophisticated phone than the G-Aqua. However, IVIO has yet to release any of its devices onto the Indian market, and the DG68 is still a prototype.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The ShenZhen BLEPHONE Technology Co., Ltd., the company that owns the popular mobile brands Lesun and Lephone (the latter of which is available on the Indian market), also had a popular booth. Aside from their large presentation of feature phones and smartphones, BLEPHONE also showcased some interesting innovations and accessories. In particular, I was quite impressed by their Lephone mobile USB charging devices, called the CooMax, and their Lesun digital recorder-cum-mobile phone, the Gift I.</p>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/lephone.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Lephone" /></th> <th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Lesun.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Lesun" /></th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ICOMM2012 was a hugely successful exhibition. Aside from showcasing many of the most interesting and significant innovations and actors in the Asian ICT sectors, and possibly the wider world, the event was able to attract more than 21,500 delegates over a two-day period.<a href="#fn6" name="fr6">[6]</a> Further, according to NK Goyal, the president of the CMAI Association of India, the fair was able to generate business leads worth USD 154 million.<a href="#fn7" name="fr7">[7]</a> I highly encourage anyone interested in the exciting and ever-changing world of ICT to attend ICOMM2013, as it is sure to continue to grow and attract more and more exciting and fascinating technologies and devices.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Given below is a gallery of the photos taken at the event and of various other booths and devices.</p>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15447679" width="476"></iframe></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">[<a href="#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]. The CMAI Association of India is a prominent trade association that works to promote growth in the Indian IT and telecom sector domestically and internationally through activities such as investing in industry services and promotion, education, training and market research. Through consultation, events, advocacy, research and promotion, the CMAI now boasts a substantial amount of members and international partners, as well as multiple international offices. More information can be found on the CMAI Association of India at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.cmai.asia/association.php">http://www.cmai.asia/association.php</a><br />[<a href="#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]. See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” <i>EFYTimes.com</i>, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, <a href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770</a>. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.<br />[<a href="#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]. The UbiSlate tablet is the commercial version of Datawind Ltd.’s Aakask tablet, a high-functioning low-cost tablet device that was developed in collaboration with the Indian government as part of the country’s endeavor to supply Indian college and university students with a low-cost computer device. This project was part of the government’s aim to provide an e-learning service to 25,000 colleges and 500 universities across India (this figure was retrieved from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817</a>). More data on this device can be found at: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.akashtablet.com/">http://www.akashtablet.com/</a><br />[<a href="#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>]. SMSInfosys is a mobile phone testing company with offices in India, Hong Kong and China. They perform quality assurance/quality control inspection, certification verification and IMEI services to mobile phone producers. More information about the company can be found here: <a class="external-link" href="http://smsinfosys.com/">http://smsinfosys.com/</a><br />[<a href="#fr5" name="fn5">5</a>]. More information on this brand and product line can be found here: <a class="external-link" href="http://globytalky.com/">http://globytalky.com/</a><br />[<a href="#fr6" name="fn6">6</a>].See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” <i>EFYTimes.com</i>, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, <a href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770</a>. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.<br />[<a href="#fr7" name="fn7">7</a>]. See: “7th ICOMM 2012 Held Successfully.” <i>EFYTimes.com</i>, EFY Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., September 17th, 2012, <a href="http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770">http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=90770</a>. Last accessed on October 30th, 2012.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/icomm-2012-report</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineAccess to Knowledge2012-12-04T06:37:05ZBlog EntryPhone Spreadsheet
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/phone-spreadsheet.xlsx
<b>A documentation of the basic components and features of the mobile devices in a spreadsheet.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/phone-spreadsheet.xlsx'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/phone-spreadsheet.xlsx</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineAccess to Knowledge2012-10-30T05:51:04ZFileA Workshop on "Exploring the Internals of Mobile Technologies"
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/workshop-exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-technologies-1
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society invites all individuals interested in investigating and exploring the internal of the Mobile/Hardware Technologies and understanding of capabilities of mobile phones to join our workshop on Saturday, October 27, 2012, at the TERI Southern Regional Centre.</b>
<p><b id="internal-source-marker_0.38347873743623495"> </b></p>
<p><span id="internal-source-marker_0.38347873743623495"> </span></p>
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<h3><b><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Objective:</b></h3>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Bringing together the technical/hacker community and individuals interested in mobile devices to explore mobile devices internals and capabilities</p>
<h3>Scope of Conference and Workshop:</h3>
<div>Our proposed topics/areas which we hope to have discussions on are:</div>
<ul>
<li>Hardware Hacking (Board/Chips Capabilities)</li>
<li>Operating System Internals (Hardware/OS Interfacing)</li>
<li>Software Development Kit (MRE, etc.)</li>
<li>Forensic Analysis</li>
<li>Understanding of Mobile as Telecommunication Device (2G/3G, etc.)</li>
<li>Understanding Mobile/Devices Internals</li>
<li>Working with JTAG/UART Ports</li>
<li>Porting Open Softwares on Mobiles/Hardwares</li>
</ul>
<h3>Expected outcomes:</h3>
<ol>
<li>Understanding of mobile devices internals and capabilities</li>
<li>Documenting mobile devices capabilities and internals</li>
<li>Publishing of blogs on knowledge generated</li>
<li>Exploration/Speculation on research/development avenues</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<h3><b>Agenda </b></h3>
<table class="vertical listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: left; "><b>I. Core Talks</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tea/Coffee: <br />Time: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p class="normal"><b>1. Arduino Board Capabilities and Playing Around It!</b><br />Objective: Understanding Arduino board capabilities and playing with it<br />Speaker: Sudar Muthu<br />Level: Introduction<br />Duration: 1 Hour<br />Time: 9:30 - 10:30 a.m.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>2. Initiatives@CIS<br /></b>
<p class="normal">Objective: Discussing the research initiative that has led CIS to become interested in mobile device internals and capabilities<br />Speaker: Jadine Lannon<br />Level: Introduction<br />Duration: 10-15 Minutes<br />Time: 10:30 - 10:45 a.m.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>3. Mobile Hacking Through Linux Drivers<br /></b>
<p class="normal">Objective: Understanding the Linux kernel & driver internals from the perspective of reverse engineering<br />Speaker: Anil Kumar Pugalia<br />Level: Intermediate to Advanced<br />Duration: 1 Hour<br />Time: 10:45 - 11:45 a.m.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>4. Hardware Hacking (Board/Chips Capabilities)<br /></b>
<p class="normal">Objective: Discuss and explore key areas of mobile hardware<br />(power, clock, pin multiplexing, peripherals, etc.)<br />Speaker: Khasim Syed Mohammed<br />Level: Introductory to Advanced<br />Duration: 1 Hour<br />Time: 11:45 - 12:45 p.m.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lunch Time<br />Time: 12:45 - 1:30 p.m.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>5. Porting Open Software on Hardware</b><br />Objective:<br />Cover porting examples for each type of peripherals<br />Cover Android and Linux bringup as an example<br />Speaker: Khasim Syed Mohammed<br />Level: Intermediate to Advance<br /> Duration: 2 Hours<br />Time: 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: left; "><b>II.</b><b>Community Knowledge Sharing/Hacking! </b><br /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Time: 3.30 to 5.30 p.m.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p class="normal"><b>5. Free Slot</b></p>
</td>
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<tr>
<td>
<p class="normal"><b>6. Free Slot</b></p>
</td>
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<td>Tea/Coffee Time</td>
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<td><b>7. Free Slot</b></td>
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<td><b>8. Free Slot</b></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></p>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; "><i>We are inviting community members to take up <b>Free Slots </b>to share their knowledge in this section. In this section, any person can propose a talk, workshop, or speculation about any device for a duration 30 minutes to 1 hour, as long as the topic falls within broader scope of the focus areas described at the in the “Scope of the Conference and Workshop” section of the workshop objectives.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Venue, Dates and Logistics</b></p>
<p>The event will take place on Saturday, October 27, 2012, at the following address:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span id="internal-source-marker_0.6882451646961272" style="text-align: start; "> </span></p>
<p>TERI Southern Regional Centre<br />4th Main, Domlur II Stage <br />Bangalore - 560 071 <br />Karnataka</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; ">The event will be begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday and end in the evening around 5 p.m. Lunch and snacks will be provided by CIS.</p>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; "><b>Available Resources:<br /></b>CIS has purchased 12 gray-market mobile phones with the intent to document as much information about the life-cycles, hardware, software and content of each phone as possible. We request that the producers, make and model of each device be kept anonymous in discussions/publications that take place outside of the workshop.</p>
<hr />
<h3 class="normal" style="text-align: justify; ">The Speakers</h3>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; "><b>1. Anil Kumar Pugalia</b><br />The author is a freelance trainer in Linux internals, Linux device drivers, embedded Linux & related topics. Prior to this, he was at Intel and Nvidia. He has been working with Linux since 1994. A gold medallist from IISc, Linux & knowledge sharing are two of his many passions. Creating and playing with open source hardware is one of his hobbies, which he materializes through his company eSrijan, which can be accessed at:<a href="http://profession.sarika-pugs.com/"><br />Website: </a><a href="http://profession.sarika-pugs.com/">http://profession.sarika-pugs.com/</a></p>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; "><b> 2. Jadine Lannon</b><br />Jadine is a research intern at the Centre for Internet and Society. She is currently working on the “Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace” research project. More information on the research project can be found here: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/pervasive-technologies-access-to-knowledge-in-the-market-place">http://cis-india.org/a2k/pervasive-technologies-access-to-knowledge-in-the-market-place</a></p>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; "><b>3. Khasim Syed Mohammed</b><br />Khasim leads Open Hardware and Software Initiatives at Texas Instruments. Blog: <a href="http://www.khasim.in/">http://www.khasim.in/</a>; <a href="http://khasim.blogspot.in/">http://khasim.blogspot.in/</a></p>
<p class="normal" style="text-align: justify; "><b>4. Sudar Muthu</b><br />Sudar does open hardware as hobby; Arudino is his playground. He is passionate about programming (particularly web-based) and loves to design and build web sites/services from scratch. AJAX, Web2.0, Semantic Web, Comet, RDF or any of those latest buzz-field jargons.</p>
<p class="normal">Blog: <a href="http://sudarmuthu.com/">http://SudarMuthu.com</a>; <a href="http://hardwarefun.com/">http://hardwarefun.com</a>; <b> </b></p>
<p class="normal"><b>Supporting Communities:</b></p>
<ul>
<li>NULL: <a href="http://null.co.in/">http://null.co.in/</a></li>
<li>SecurityXploaded: <a href="http://securityxploded.com/">http://securityxploded.com/</a></li>
<li>Computer Club India: <a href="http://computerclub.in/Main_Page">http://computerclub.in/Main_Page</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="normal"><b><br /></b></p>
<p class="normal"><b>Register at:</b><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dG1UcHBYR2xRLWhPZ0QwVWlaaEg0SXc6MQ"> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dG1UcHBYR2xRLWhPZ0QwVWlaaEg0SXc6MQ</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/workshop-exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-technologies-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/events/workshop-exploring-the-internals-of-mobile-technologies-1</a>
</p>
No publisherjdineEvent TypeWorkshopAccess to Knowledge2012-10-25T06:52:50ZEvent