Standing committee asks govt to bring in privacy law

The demand for a privacy law has been growing after the leaked conversations between a corporate lobbyist and some industrialists

A parliamentary panel has asked the Centre to introduce the long-awaited privacy Bill and make provisions for locating internet servers in the country.

The demand for a privacy law has been growing amid the leaked telephone conversations between a corporate lobbyist and some industrialists.

The recent “snoopgate” scandal, too, has added fuel to the fire. “(The) committee is extremely unhappy to note that the government is yet to institute a legal framework on privacy,” the standing committee on information technology said in its 52nd report. The Department of Personnel and Training has been drafting a Bill for the past three years.

The committee, headed by Rao Inderjit Singh, lashed out at government’s initiatives to protect cyber space and reduce cyber crimes.

“The mere issuance of advisories would not solve the problem (of cyber crime),” it said. It asked the government to set up cyber crime cells in each district, arrange deadlines for the implementation of National Cyber Security Policy, conduct security review of e-governance projects and train cyber experts.

It noted that India has only 65,000 trained personnel against the estimated requirement of 500,000 people. It criticised departments for not fully utilising allocated funds for research and development. In the same stroke, it raised concerns over the cut in budgets over similar work.   

Year	Incidents of cyber crime
2009	420
2010	966
2011	1791
2012	2876

Five top countries in web hosting in 2012

Country	Rankings	Percentage
United States	1	44
China	2	9
South Korea	3	8.5
United Kingdom	4	7
Canada	5	5
India	12	0.82

Source: Standing Committee report