Technology Law India

Hey there:

For the regulars, I must apologise - I’ve again managed to let time slip by without a few bytes in your direction.

February was an eventful month what with opening a new office, attending conferences and tracking some interesting developments in law. I happened to attend the fourth annual Asian conference of the International Technology Law Association at Mumbai - an interesting event that brings together technology lawyers from India and overseas together for some neat presentations and a lot of networking. It was also a chance to meet and catch up with a number of fellow alumnae from the National Law School of India University, many of whom now work with Western law firms.

What I did miss attending was the public meeting of ICANN held for the first time in New Delhi. This meeting was organized with assistance from NIXI and the Government. I have serious misgivings over the manner in which ICANN is organized and managed, but am glad to see some level of activity in the echelons of the Indian government in recognizing the importance of the domain name system to the present day Internet.

For my readers with an interest in e-commerce issues, I should point you in the direction of a new Indian statute. The Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 was passed by the Indian Parliament on December 20, 2007 but did not make it on my radar then. This enactment requires any entity seeking to operate payment systems (including electronic payment systems) to obtain a prior authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Existing operators of payment systems are required to obtain such an authorisation within a period of six months from the date the Act comes into force. This statute follows on the 2005 constitution by the RBI of an authority to regulate and supervise payment systems. I believe this is a significant development in the e-commerce scene in India in that it brings non-bank participants in an electronic payment system within the ambit of the RBI’s regulatory framework for payment systems. More on this when I have time to present succinct analysis…

This post is tagged conference, e-commerce, ICANN, itechlaw, NIXI, Payment and Settlement Systems Act, RBI