West Bengal charts norms for IT-ITeS cos

KOLKATA: On the heels of Xponse CEO Sanjay Kedia’s arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau over his firm’s alleged links with an international drug cartel, the West Bengal government is planning to evolve a code of operational guidelines for IT/ITeS firms operating out of the city’s Salt Lake Electronics Complex (Saltlec).

The state government plans to draft such guidelines after consultations with the state information technology/BPO industry. The objective is to prevent cyber crimes along the lines of the Xponse case from happening in future.

However, the state government has no concrete strategy to enforce these guidelines. Nor is it planning to approach the Union IT & communications ministry to evolve such a regulatory framework for IT/ITeS companies operating out of Saltlec.

“We will explore ways to spot loopholes and possible abuses within the existing system to prevent similar incidents (read: cyber crimes) in future. However, this does not mean that the state government wishes to police the IT firms, which is neither possible nor desirable. It is still early days and details are yet to be worked out,” the state IT secretary, Mr Siddharth, told ET.

“The West Bengal IT department also wishes to seek the assistance of IT professionals and cyber crime experts to evolve this set of guidelines. It will do a detailed study of the modus operandi of the accused, Sanjay Kedia, and follow the investigation process by Narcotics Control Bureau to figure out loopholes within the system,” said sources in state IT department.

“Once the security failures are identified, efforts will be made to plug these loopholes. And in this, we expect some initiatives from the industry to brainstorm on the issue and come up with solutions to evolve a code of conduct,” adds Mr Siddharth.

Interestingly, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Saltlec-Rajarhat IT committee is looking to draft a code of conduct for the IT firms. However, it thinks that any effort to completely regulate the business may be detrimental.

“Business guidelines can be worked out with the state government which the IT/ITeS companies will follow. But beyond this, it isn’t desirable that the government starts regulating IT/ITeS companies. Every company has its business secrets and any encroachment on that can kill the industry,” said BCCI president S Radhakrishnan.

Both the state government and IT industry believe feel the Xponse case is an one-off incident. “The mood in Saltlec is quite upbeat and no one is even talking about XPonse. One or two such aberrations cannot hinder investment or business potential,” said CII eastern region chairman (IT committee) Ambarish Dasgupta.

writankar.mukherjee@timesgroup.com