Convergence Bill to be introduced in monsoon session

MUMBAI: The much-awaited Convergence Bill may finally be tabled in the

Parliament this monsoon session, according to Pramod Mahajan, Union minister for

information technology and parliamentary affairs.

Speaking at the CII inaugural session of the e-commerce meet on

"E-commerce in India: How to make it happen" in Mumbai, he said GOT-IT

(group of ministers on information technology and telecom) would finalize the

draft of the Convergence Bill at a meeting on July 11.

Though he acknowledged the lack of unanimity among the GOT-IT members over

the introduction of licensing system in some IT sectors, he hoped the bill would

be passed in the next budget session. Complimenting the CII National Committee

on e-commerce for putting together a set of pragmatic suggestions in its action

report, Mahajan assured to implement some of the suggestions in the report and

submit an Action Taken Report (ATR) within the next two and a half months.

The IT ministry would lay special emphasis on issues relating to the laying

down of the security infrastructure for e-commerce, he said. In addition, the

minister also promised to forward copies of the CII report to the concerned

ministries such as information & broadcasting, communication, law, finance

and the prime minister's office.

ICICI managing director and COO Lalita Gupte said e-commerce in India was at

the threshold of rapid change and development, and unless appropriate actions

were taken, the country would be left behind in the digital revolution. She also

said the report was drawn from the opinion of several CEOs, CIOs and members

from various segments of this industry.

The report called on the government to adopt a partnership-approach with the

industry representatives to promote an environment conducive to the growth of

e-commerce in the country. It also sought the application of e-commerce in SMEs

and government departments. The report also identified communication

infrastructure, payment and taxation, security infrastructure and e-governance

as the building blocks for promoting e-commerce in India.

CII president Sanjiv Goenka recalled some of the new initiatives undertaken

by the forum to spearhead e-commerce in the IT industry, one such initiative

being the customer connect program to assist software and services companies to

access markets across the world.

As a part of these efforts, several road shows involving top IT companies

would be held in New York and Washington in which the CII team would be

represented by the Union IT minister Pramod Mahajan, added Goenka.