India will not risk national security for technology: Pilot

As a solution elude monitoring of data transmitted through Blackberry phone, India today said it would not risk national security, especially when answers to the problem have been found elsewhere in the world.

"These concerns have been addressed in other parts of the world, I see no reason why the Indian government and agencies should take any risk at all as far technology is concerned," Minister of State for Communication and IT Sachin Pilot told reporters here.

The government has asked the Blackberry phone maker RIM to provide access to data such as e-mail sent through the phone by August 31 or face ban on its data services.

However, Pilot made it clear that the government was not in the business of shutting down services.  "We are not in the business shutting down services," he said.

Blackberry is a smartphone that allows users to send and receive data like e-mail through servers located overseas.

The Home Ministry had told the Telecom Ministry that if the security concerns were not addressed, the service should be stopped immediately.

In a bid to break the logjam, the smart phone maker had offered to provide information on a deferred basis. But the government had asked RIM to provide a "master key" to gain access to encrypted corporate information on a real time basis.

RIM yesterday had said that company does not have a master key to gain access to encrypted corporate information.

Pilot, however, expressed hope that the matter would be resolved. "The discussions are going on we hopeful we will come up with resolution," he said.
   
The smart-phone-maker has a subscriber base of one million in India.