The Hindu Business Line : Formulate innovative laws for digital economy: Kalam

The legal community must enable formulation of progressive and innovative laws for the digital economy, according to Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President.

In an interaction with students of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) Law College in Mangalore on Monday, he said economic prosperity by 2020 will mean that many of the Indians will be doing business in the digital world on the Web.

In this new era, crime, law and justice will be completely different. The crime may originate from a strange place, even outside own shores, and damage organisational wealth, which will be in the digital form from multiple locations, Mr Kalam pointed out.

Indian judicial system has to build its capacity to define jurisdictions in a way that any crime committed against India or its assets by anyone from anywhere shall be punishable by Indian law. “The legal community must enable formulation of progressive and innovative laws for the digital economy that will be one of the vital components of a developed nation,” he said.

Mr Kalam stressed the need for reviewing certain laws for protecting India’s wealth and strategic assets in space, cyber and sea, and all of them combined together.

On space laws, he said a world body allots the slots for communication satellites in the geo-synchronous orbit for all the users. In the geo-synchronous orbit, there are certain strategic slots from which the country can radiate to most parts of the planet all the time.

Wealth generation

That provides additional wealth generation capability to certain users. Most of these slots have been occupied by the developed world.

Particularly, in times of conflict, blocks of countries waging the war may create economic damage by switching off the transponders radiating to the enemy country. “An in-depth analysis is required to simulate and understand the probable situation and work out adequate legal safeguards to protect our interest,” he said.

Mr Mr Kalam said that India’s marine wealth, transportation to and fro in the national-international waters and territorial regions need an integrated look. It is necessary to protect deep sea oil, gas and mineral reserves apart from connecting sea bed resources.

“A thorough review is required to understand whether our national interests above the sea, on the sea and under the sea are fully protected,” he said.

The country has to implement a robust encryption system for all transactions through a national encryption policy, he added.

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