India to host UN meet on Internet governance

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India will host the 3rd United Nation’s Meet on Internet Governance. The global mega event, with the theme ‘Internet for All’, is scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from December 3 to 6, 2008, said an official press release.

This meeting of the Geneva based Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the UN is being held in Asia for the first time. The earlier two meets were held in Athens in 2006 and in Rio-de-Janeiro in 2007.

It is  estimated that 1,400 delegates comprising governments, academia, industry and civil society would attend the Hyderabad meeting. Leading IT companies, Internet service providers, information security professionals are also expected to attend it.

While deciding to hold the Internet governance meet in India, the UN pointed towards the tremendous economic growth achieved by the country through harnessing the Internet tools, the release said. The world body said, India’s development through the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been truly astounding.

The IGF theme complements that of the 2008 World Telecommunications and Information Society Day - ‘Connecting people with disabilities’. The theme underscores the importance of ensuring that world’s 650 million people with disabilities are included while moving towards the objective of giving Internet access to the next billion people, the release added.

In the last IGF meet at Rio de Janeiro, the issues of the protection of children and the fight against child pornography on the Internet had featured prominently. The meeting also addressed the issue of openness and freedom of expression, development and capacity building, access, critical Internet resources, diversity etc.