Indo-US ICT to work on cyber security

NEW DELHI: India and US will work together on cyber security issues, a meeting of the India-US Information and Communications Technologies Working Group here has decided.

Talking to CyberMedia News after the closed-door meeting of the India-US ICT Joint Working Group, M Madhavan Nambiar, additional secretary of department of information technology, said that the two sides would be meeting again in Washington in mid-2007.

“We have discussed various issues, especially cyber security, and have suggested that the group meet once in six months. We would be looking at specific projects, executions and also deliverables at the next meeting of the joint working group,” he said.

David Gross, the US coordinator for international communications and information policy, department of state, said the meeting was aimed at taking implementation of ICT forward.

“The joint working group will be organising a seminar or workshop on the issue of cyber security in March 2007 in India, the deliberations of which will be discussed at Washington. The seminar will also have sessions on regulatory issues in telecommunication sector and taxation,” he said.

“There are lot of private sector initiatives and best practices in the ICT sector in the country. We would like to take the Indian example to other developing countries,” Gross added.

The joint working group also discussed about initiatives to be taken for supporting the ICT hardware-manufacturing sector in India.