With the directive of the Delhi High Court last year, the previous UPA government had drafted the Email Policy of Government of India for government employees to peruse in official communication, to ensure “secure access and usage of data”.
In an affidavit filed in the high court, the department of electronics and information technology had assured the court the use of e-mail accounts of external service providers will be “prohibited for official communication” by the government employees.
In its affidavit, the previous government has assured: “The e-mail Policy of the government of India lays down the guidelines with respect to use of email services. As per the proposed policies, email accounts will be given to all the employees of the government and it will be mandatory for them to use this e-mail account for all official communications.”
“One wonders why the previous government required so many prods and pushes, and a public interest litigation, for the policy,” says TamalGhosh, a law expert.
He further explains that the high court directive in March 2013 had come after a division bench of had asked the central government to bring in an e-mail policy for government officials in “consonance with the Public Records Act in order to bar transfer of data to a server outside the country”. The two-member bench’s order was the fallout of a PIL by former BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) leader K.N. Govindacharya, which categorically brought the court’s attention to the fact that use of e-mail accounts whose servers were outside India and transfer of “nation’s official data using this medium violated the Public Records Act”.
Indeed, the issue of national security cannot be undermined. Nonetheless, not much water has flown under the bridge, a situation that had become a signature of the past government — Many political experts in fact say such lackadaisical and slow attitude that led to its rout. A similar has been the fate of the email policy for government officials. Although the Email Policy of Government of India is up in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEIT) site under ‘Email Policy’ section, there is still much to be done in terms of ensuring that all government employees have their nic.in email IDs. By the then government’s own admission in itsaffidavit, only 450,000 of its 5 million employees have been given e-mail accounts by the National Informatics Centre while the “technical upgradation” was required to provide the facility to the rest.
According to a former DIET scientist, “the email policy and the “Policy on Acceptable use of IT Resources of Government of India” required a wider consultation among different stake holders both in the central and state governments, but one fails to understand why the whole issue, which has a crucial linkage to national security and protection of our confidentiality as a sovereign state, is seen so much of delay.
She adds: “It is not something unique, there are many nations, including Singapore, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ecuador, Sweden, and the UAE, who follow such a policy. By the government’s own observation, the White House is the US does not allow its officials to access e-mails of private e-mail service providers at work. So why is the matter not being taken on a war-footing?”
“This would apply to all IT resources, owned or leased by government of India, and services accessible on or through them. The objective of this policy is to ensure proper access and usage of government of India’s IT resources by all its users and protect the Information and Communications Technology infrastructure of the Government from any misuse.”
That would mean that all private e-mail services of foreign companies – such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft – stay banned in official circles, and instead be replaced by a home-grown system to the fullest. “How can you do that if all your officials don’t even have theirnic.in email IDs in place?” asks the scientist.
Thus, like a lot of other issues on security matters the Modi government has creditably taken up in so early in its tenure, now the onus lies on it to take the email policy to its logical end. For starters, thewider consultation process among the stake holders in the country, which would include policy issues, ways and means of implementation of policies, enhancement of infrastructure and other related issues have to be completed on a priority and with deadlines.
Further, the government has to ensure issues regarding the enforcement and enhancement of infrastructure to cater to the large number of government employees are mitigated and techniques for securing the infrastructure and data contained in the mail servers are in place. “The present government needs to put in a workable taskforce that will see to it existing infrastructure is augmented in the true sense of the term,” says cyber expert Akhil Kumar.
Kumar points out to the clear and present danger of being compromised in the usage of emails services of providers with servers away from shores of the country. Though they are required to comply with Indian laws, especially the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000), “it cannot be denied that private e-mail service providers not only indulge in behavioural analysis to provide interest specific advertisements but they also violate the laws of India while doing so”.
Most importantly, the new government has to ensure that indifference and lethargy of the previous Indian government to ensure a timely e-mail policy of India, which even the Delhi High Court has expressed its displeasure about, are replaced by promptness and understanding of the gravity of the situation. Indeed the previous government was guilty of being lax in coming out with a notification on a national e-mail policy for official communication.
It must be understood that the government has to also wake up its employee to the knowledge of how, what and when critical data can be vulnerable. Accodring to a report a senior Indian bureaucrat admit that top government officials prefer Gmail, but that they “keep moving, get different designations, go different places and with that our emails change. You lose contacts and important emails, which you do not need to worry about with a Gmail account.” But that’s just not enough.
Further the present government also needs to ensure that adaptation of nic.in email can only be speeded up if quality like Gmail’s is maintained. UPA government’s science and technology minister had once said: To be honest, the quality of our official mail is not that great yet. It still needs some work.” The Modi government must ensure that the work is completed.
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