India's ranking drops in BSA Global Cloud Computing scorecard

India now ranks 20 out of 24 leading IT economies -- down from 18 in 2016 -- when it comes to adoption of Cloud-friendly policies, showing that the legal and regulatory environment in the country is restricting innovation, a report said on Wednesday.

The report by "BSA | The Software Alliance" showed that emerging markets continue to lag behind in the adoption of cloud-friendly policies, hindering their growth.

"BSA | The Software Alliance" is a trade group founded by Microsoft that attempts to eliminate piracy of the software made by its members.

"The Scorecard -- that ranks countries' preparedness for the adoption and growth of Cloud computing services -- is a tool that can help countries constructively self-evaluate their policies and determine the next steps to increase adoption of the technology," Victoria Espinel, President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance, said in a statement.

According to the report, "Laws and regulations in India have not entirely kept pace with developments in Cloud computing, and some gaps exist in key areas of protection; notably, India has not yet implemented effective privacy legislation, although work is underway to address this issue".

The report also said that though India has a comprehensive national cybersecurity strategy in place and strong cybercrime legislation, some laws and standards in India are not technology neutral and these may be a barrier to interoperability.

This year's report also noted that India imposes some local security testing requirements in addition to international testing requirements which have been the subject of criticism by India's trading partners, including the European Union.

"There is a gap in trade secrets protection in India. In addition, guidance for examiners on how to evaluate patent applications for software-enabled inventions is lacking, although the revocation of guidelines that would have prevented most computer related inventions from being subject to patent protection if novel hardware was not present is a step in the right direction," the report said.

Germany scored the highest on the scorecard due to its national cybersecurity policies and promotion of free trade, followed closely by Japan and the US.

"Countries that embrace the free flow of data, implement cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions, protect intellectual property and establish IT infrastructure will continue to reap the benefits of cloud computing for businesses and citizens alike," Espinel said.

--IANS

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