28th March 2024

Sitara

India’s First Do Tank linking Tech and Geopolitical Power

DoT & MEITY: About the Right and the Left Hand…

We had written to Government about the national and economic security risks in MEITY’s incomprehensible decision to permit Govt data storage on foreign (Google) clouds.  It seems DoT has woken up to the threat and forbidden storage of official and classified information on private cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, and others, with the employee storing such data liable for penal action in case of a data breach. Further, DoT has directed that classified work must be “strictly be carried out only in a standalone computer which is not connected to internet. Employees have also been asked to avoid mobile or internet-based service that requires their location.”

We commend DoT’s decision and urge it to go further and devise a medium-long-term plan to help Indian ICT companies establish a foothold in each of the high-tech areas in ICT sectors: Clouds, 4G, 5G, OS, etc. This is as per DoT’s mandate and i has the humongous USOF (United Services Obligation Fund) through which it can support a massive upgradation of India’s ICT capabilities. All technological progress is going to be built upon and in ICTs. DoT must rise to the occasion.

At the same time all Govt agencies giving access to citizens and Govt data to FOEMs/ Big tech/ Big 4 should be investigated and the orders/ contracts retracted.

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