NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL will operate and maintain a secure network being built to ensure confidentiality between government departments across the country.
The Centre had earlier planned to bring in the security agencies to run the 600-crore network.
According to an internal document of the telecom department viewed by ET, the Centre will fund the telcos which will run the network on a non-commercial basis.
The network will connect nearly 5,000 government departments at the Centre as well as in the states. However, it will not replace the existing telecom infrastructure in these departments, which will switch to the secure system only in case of emergencies and for sending sensitive information.
This network will not overlap with any of the existing telecom infrastructure or have any points of interconnect with any private operator in the country, making it highly secure. All equipment for this network is being sourced from state-owned telecom research agency C-DoT.
In a related development, funding for the indigenously built Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), which is set to go live soon and can monitor all communication traffic - wireless and fixed line, satellite, internet, e-mails and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls - has been doubled to 900 crore.
The CMS is modelled on similar systems in several developed countries. In the US, for instance, the national security agency monitors all communication traffic, while in the UK this is undertaken by the government communications headquarters.
The CMS is also considered to be India's equivalent to UK's upcoming interception modernisation programme (IMP) - a massive expansion of its current communications surveillance facilities for the internet age. The CMS was initiated in 2007 but it was put on fast track after the attacks in Mumbai where terrorists received orders via VoIP (internet telephony) phones.
ET had first reported in August 2010 that the ministries of defence, law, finance, home, telecommunications and IT had jointly begun testing the CMS. But this platform cannot be implemented across the country without cabinet approval.
Besides, existing laws will also have to be amended to allow centralised tapping provision.
Earlier this year, the prime minister had asked cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar to review phone tapping rules to ensure tighter oversight and a clear chain of custody for intercepted records and need-based information sharing within agencies. Following Chandrasekhar's recommendations, the PMO tasked an inter-ministerial group comprising home, defence, telecom and personnel secretaries, apart from the Intelligence Bureau director and representatives from the tax department to come up with new rules that will eliminate loopholes in the existing norms.
This panel, in its report to the PMO, had recommended that phone tapping requests by the Enforcement Directorate and Directorate for Revenue Intelligence should be vetted by senior officials before they land at the union home secretary's desk for authorisation. ....
The Centre had earlier planned to bring in the security agencies to run the 600-crore network.
According to an internal document of the telecom department viewed by ET, the Centre will fund the telcos which will run the network on a non-commercial basis.
The network will connect nearly 5,000 government departments at the Centre as well as in the states. However, it will not replace the existing telecom infrastructure in these departments, which will switch to the secure system only in case of emergencies and for sending sensitive information.
This network will not overlap with any of the existing telecom infrastructure or have any points of interconnect with any private operator in the country, making it highly secure. All equipment for this network is being sourced from state-owned telecom research agency C-DoT.
In a related development, funding for the indigenously built Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), which is set to go live soon and can monitor all communication traffic - wireless and fixed line, satellite, internet, e-mails and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls - has been doubled to 900 crore.
The CMS is modelled on similar systems in several developed countries. In the US, for instance, the national security agency monitors all communication traffic, while in the UK this is undertaken by the government communications headquarters.
The CMS is also considered to be India's equivalent to UK's upcoming interception modernisation programme (IMP) - a massive expansion of its current communications surveillance facilities for the internet age. The CMS was initiated in 2007 but it was put on fast track after the attacks in Mumbai where terrorists received orders via VoIP (internet telephony) phones.
ET had first reported in August 2010 that the ministries of defence, law, finance, home, telecommunications and IT had jointly begun testing the CMS. But this platform cannot be implemented across the country without cabinet approval.
Besides, existing laws will also have to be amended to allow centralised tapping provision.
Earlier this year, the prime minister had asked cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar to review phone tapping rules to ensure tighter oversight and a clear chain of custody for intercepted records and need-based information sharing within agencies. Following Chandrasekhar's recommendations, the PMO tasked an inter-ministerial group comprising home, defence, telecom and personnel secretaries, apart from the Intelligence Bureau director and representatives from the tax department to come up with new rules that will eliminate loopholes in the existing norms.
This panel, in its report to the PMO, had recommended that phone tapping requests by the Enforcement Directorate and Directorate for Revenue Intelligence should be vetted by senior officials before they land at the union home secretary's desk for authorisation. ....
