India cloud industry needs new policy, amendment in law

BANGALORE, INDIA: India is at the cusp of cloud revolution, however, a lot of things need to be taken care of, especially by the government, in order to enable cloud computing in the country.

The first of which is to formulate a Cloud Policy, which will lay a foundation for a large scale adoption of the cloud by various government entities, says Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in its latest whitepaper, 'The Indian Cloud Revolution'.

It also adds that from a data security perspective, the cloud’s fluid architecture presents the biggest challenge. It may require an amendment in the current laws to harmonize jurisdictional conflict issues and provide clear prescriptions on the security measures to be adopted.

Changes will also be required in organizational security practices that provide for regular review/audit of critical cloud infrastructure.

Existing regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will have to be directed to develop guidelines keeping in mind how the cloud can potentially affect the entities they regulate.

The IT/ITeS sector has an opportunity to enhance their current offerings and reach a Global market by making them cloud ready. They can also use remote testing and prototyping services in addition to remote application hosting services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Cloud based services can be leveraged by the government to launch new e-Governance initiatives quicker and with lower overhead costs. A common cloud platform will also enable local governments and other public agencies to adopt e-Governance for better citizen services, without requiring the setting up of significant IT infrastructure.”

The whitepaper emphasizes that any Cloud Policy will have to take into account the data sovereignty and governance considerations and study the worldwide global practices relating to resolving jurisdictional conflicts.

The policy will also have to reconcile the most suitable mechanism to enable law enforcement agencies’ to collect and analyze personal and electronic data as per the existing laws. The manner of access, format of storing and providing information, retention period, content regulation and regular reporting will all have to be considered within such policy. 

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII. He adds “CII believes that cloud computing as a disruptive technology and business model offers an accelerator approach for economic growth as it connects people to data, information and computing resources anywhere and anytime.”

The Cloud has potential to transform not only business ecosystem but also day to day challenges of Indian citizens including necessary services such as healthcare and education.

Infrastructure development will be a key government initiative that will provide the land, power, technology and human resource to establish India as a data management hub.

Currently, India lags behind developed countries in terms of established data centres operating in the country. Economic benefits of having data management centres in the country are huge and the Cloud Policy will have to provide a clear vision to enable such an outcome.

The Cloud unlike previous technology shifts is not a mere collection of technologies but a transformational concept which requires the ecosystem to be developed.

Power, connectivity and bandwidth, real estate, technology enablers, awareness and local language support make the base of the cloud computing pyramid. While the Government is one of the primary pillars to help overcome these challenges, involvement of the private sector is also equally important for swift and effective enablement.

In addition, special financial provisions in-terms of cloud infrastructure, loans, tax incentives and land should be made available by the Indian Government for the private players who wish to build infrastructure for cloud computing, the CII report recommends.