E-commerce to be given major boost in state government’s policy

The state government will pass a law on information technology once the IT Bill is passed by the Parliament. The cyber laws will enable people of the state to enter electronic commerce and business, science and technology adviser N.V. Vasani said here on Friday.

Addressing a seminar on e-commerce and Internet services organised by the Gujarat Informatics Limited and Confederation of Indian Industry at Ahmedabad Management Association, Mr Vasani said, "The IT Bill is pending before the Centre and the state government will enforce a law the moment the Parliament passes it.’ The state government is waiting for the central nod and is taking all steps to promote IT industry n the state," he added.

All IT experts of government and private sectors identified hacking as a major problem. They felt the need of stringent laws to check hacking so that no fraud is committed.

Speaking on this problem, additional chief secretary and information technology head K.C. Kapoor said the IT Bill contains all laws including CrPc and IPC. He said, "Cyber laws have all provisions to punish the guilty."

The government is training the police personnel in IT, which will help in grabbing hardened criminals, he added. Calling the private sector to take initiative to develop IT industry, Mr Kapoor said the state government is building an Infocity in Gandhinagar. "But the state government is ready to give all facilities including land power and connectivity to the private sector too if they want to develop similar infocities," he said.

The heads of the important players of IT industry spoke at length along with the slide show on the prospects of e-Commerce and Internet services in India.

According to them, the definition of e-commerce is any commercial activity involving buying goods and hiring services across the Internet.

The e-commerce transactions mainly include business to customer, customer to business, business to business and customer to customer.

According to Tata Consultancy Services resident manager Suresh G. Menon there are mainly four forces — technology, market, cultural and political — which influence e-commerce.

Spelling out the draft prepared by CII core group on the IT strategy for Gujarat, CII office bearer Rohit Dogra said the state government has a greater role to play by sensitising business, expanding Internet network, establishing new IT business and getting mega companies to Gujarat. The government should educate the people about the information technology, Mr Dogra said.

Oracle India deputy manager (marketing) Sandeep Pal said e-commerce can be used in travels, shopping, insurance, automobile, computing and electronics, banking and postal.

Explaining the implementation of e-commerce and Internet services, IBM product manager (e-business) Atul Sareen said the Bank of Montreal, ABB India and Rediff are the major leaders providing e-commerce services successfully.

Compiled from local news media