When India passed the ITA-2000, it
technically enable the Governments to adopt IT into its decision making
process. Under Chapter III entitled "Electronic Governance", the Act gave
legal recognition not only to Electronic Documents, Digital Signatures
but also expressly stated under sections 6, 7 and 8 that Electronic documents
and Digital signatures can be adopted by Government bodies for filing any
form, application , tender document, storing of records, publication of
Gazette etc.
However, under Sec 9 which followed, the Act stated
"Sections 6, 7 and 8 Not to Confer Right to insist
document should be accepted in electronic form
Nothing contained in sections 6, 7 and 8 shall confer a
right upon any person to insist that any Ministry or Department of the
Central Government or the State Government or any authority or body
established by or under any law or controlled or funded by the Central or
State Government should accept, issue, create, retain and preserve any
document in the form of electronic records or effect any monetary
transaction in the electronic form"
By incorporating this section, the Act gave complete
freedom to Government departments in incorporating the provisions of the Act
into E-Governance. Even though progressive Governments in some states are
going ahead with E-Governance projects, the Section 9 has removed the
possibility of public pressure working towards early implementation of
E-Governance.
In Contrast, the South African Bill on Electronic Commerce
(which will become the
Electronic
Communications and Transactions Act, 2002
or ECT 2002) which has been recently introduced states as under:
1. The Minister and the Cabinet has to develop a 5 year
National E-Strategy and present it within 24 months of the promulgation
of the ECT 2002 implementation of which should be declared by the Cabinet as a
"National Priority".
2. Such a strategy must be drawn with an objective to make
the republic the "preferred Provider and User" of Electronic transactions in
the International market, promote Universal Access, HRD, and Small, Medium and
Micro
Enterprises, etc.
What is striking in contrast in this approach of the South
African Government is the Desire to work for International Goals without
rejecting National interests and to set a time frame for not only the Minister
in Charge of Information technology but to the entire Government itself. It
suggests a "Broad Global Vision" and " Extreme Self Confidence".
Indian policy makers who revel in procrastination prefer to
have an open ended agenda so that year after year, election after election,
the same agenda can be circulated as fresh initiatives. Our Finance and
Industry Ministers should particularly take note of the concern expressed in
the Bill for the welfare of Local Small Enterprises along with Global
marketing Initiative as distinct from our usual approach of "Sacrificing
the local initiatives and making way for International invasion".
(This is the first article in the series of articles that
will highlight the provisions of South African ECT -2002)
Naavi
March 13, 2002