The Illegal Net

Can India quickly move to banking on the internet? Unlikely, it seems. And the hindrance are the various laws governing banking. They require, for example, that money can be transferred from one account to another only on the basis of an instrument like a cheque, properly signed. Internet banking, on the other hand, depends on the use of password. In Internet banking, bank customers can pay from their bank accounts through authorisation made by using the password. No such luck here. Unless the existing laws are changed, which is a lengthy procedure, internet banking will not happen. Incidentally, ATM cards too use passwords and not signatures for authentification. According to a legal expert, this makes ATM too an illegal entity!