Convergence Act to replace Indian Telegraph Act

PUNE: The archaic Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, will soon give way to a new

holistic Convergence Act. Union Minister for Information Technology (IT) Pramod

Mahajan made an announcement to this effect on Sunday in Pune.

Mahajan was in Pune to attend the closing ceremony of ‘e-Merging

Technologies’, the country’s first ever conference on Information Technology

and Biotechnology. The conference was organized by Pune Vyaspeeth, a

non-political forum established under the leadership of Rajya Sabha MP Suresh

Kalmadi and Cyber Expo, the exhibitions division of Cyber Media (India) Ltd.

The minister said that the government was ready with the final draft of the

‘Convergence Act’ to cover all aspects related to the convergence of various

technologies. A group of ministers is currently examining the new Act and the

final draft would be cleared on December 21. The new Act would be available on

the Net on December 25 for suggestions and comments from the public. The

minister was confident that the Act would be a reality by the end of next year.

And when it does, India would be the second country in Asia after Malaysia to go

in for a Convergence Act. India has already become the second country after

Singapore to formulate an IT Act.