'All Ambitions of Providing GMPCS Service in India Need to Be Tempered with Solid Business Case' - Dr Bishnu Das Pradhan, senior vice-president and general manager, ICO.

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We are very

optimistic about the market in India as the rate of Internet penetration is high.

Bhaskar Gorti, director, E-commerce

business development (Verifone), Hewlett Packard.

 

How are you

approaching the Indian market, which is yet to be explored in terms of E-commerce?

In India, we have a two-pronged approach.

One is on the infrastructure side, where we focus on corporates that are planning to build

Internet infrastructure. The primary focus is on mission-critical applications and

providing quality service. The other is on value-added services, which will ride on top of

those infrastructures.

The key to E-commerce is not just putting

a web page but creating the market demand and converting that demand in revenue terms. SIZE="2" COLOR="#016077">

What would be your first step of implementing E-commerce

in India?

India is in the first phase of

infrastructure deployment. We are talking to some players for deploying the financial

payment infrastructure. While the legislation is being worked out, we want our partners to

be ready anytime to offer services once the legislation gets over. SIZE="2">

We already have seen a couple of banks

like ICICI offering Internet banking and so it is happening. We are banking on the

existing laws, which can be applied to Internet. But in future, we would like to see that

the government should promote these and not impose any new taxes. SIZE="2" COLOR="#016077">

What are the security aspects for promoting E-commerce? SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

Today, it is communication and application

security. Communication security is one that has been in the pipeline and application

security helps in managing access to the network. COLOR="#016077">

What are the solutions that HP is providing to ISPs,

corporates, and end consumers?

For financial services and ISPs, we are in

the business of providing technologies to help them roll out new services and stay ahead

of competition. In a way, we remove barriers to provide services to our customers. SIZE="2">

As systems are changing fast, one has to

deploy solutions fast by understanding the technology, integrating solutions, and coming

out with the best products that help in lowering the barrier and rolling out services.

We have around five-six technologies in

E-commerce. One such is the "Smart Internet" usage for ISPs where one can charge

based on the number of persons, amount of Internet time being utilized, amount of data

being downloaded, and other parameters. The second is the "Virtual Wall", which

the service providers can host to any financial institution providing Internet banking.

The focus is also on providing commercial

grade Internet service. In the communication industry, it is common to provide quality

service but it has not come in the Internet arena. Our technology takes care of all these

parameters in providing quality service.

How dependent are these products on the communication

layers?

These are quite independent of the

communication layers. One can use it over Internet, cable, and dedicated lines. So in the

seven-layer OSI model, it communicates to the next layer using standard technologies and

does not assume that you are going to the communication layers. The smart card technology

can even do the work offline.

What are the E-commerce laws applicable in the US and what

laws should be applicable in India?

In the US, there is a trusted third party,

which issues the certificate of authority, where the party is going to say who you are,

what the other party is, and about the transaction.

If tomorrow, one denies having bought it

from the concerned party, there is sure to be a problem. The trusted third party could be

independent of the government or could be within the government.

In India, the government can form a body

and the body will take care of cyber identity. The issue of taxation has to be solved.

In the US and the UK, all the states or

counties have different sales tax. The sales tax is according to the state in which the

consumer resides. So if something is bought in Delhi from a shop in Mumbai, the laws in

Delhi will govern it. Usually, it is the shipping address where the goods are shipped and

the sales tax is collected at this place. In the US, no new taxes have been imposed on

transactions made by Internet.

What are your products that can be directly supplied to

the consumer?

In the low end, we have PCs that have

Internet-ready keyboards, products that are smart card-ready, and printers that can be

directly connected to the web. By just carrying the smart card, which contains the

financial information one can use it in any system, which is smart card-ready. In the high

end, NT servers come bundled with all Internet packages and applications. SIZE="2" COLOR="#016077">

Will smart card technology take care of all the systems? SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

There are some regulatory issues. More

than that it is an open issue where one can use the same card for multiple systems. The

technology is still to be evolved, where they are going to accept smart cards of multiple

vendors rather than being vendor specific.

What are the security aspects of the

system and on what cryptography is it based? COLOR="#000000">

Our systems are based on public

cryptography and we are primarily working on the "Virtual Wall" technology. SIZE="2" COLOR="#016077">

What are your global plans? SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

Right now, we are focussed on the products

that we have and are working through our partners to provide the service. The ISPs have

started deploying these services. We have around 30 installations around the world and we

want to bring these to the emerging markets here. We have a portfolio and wherever we need

to add, we have a strong partnership with independent software vendors. We focus on our

partners like Cambridge Technologies and i2 Technologies. COLOR="#016077">

What are your plans for the Indian market? SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

We are very optimistic about the market in

India as the rate of Internet penetration is high. In India, we are focusing on banks and

telecom companies because these are the leaders in deploying solutions. Manufacturing

sector is another segment that will go in for E-commerce and will be linked to ISPs who

will provide virtual private network as value-added networks. The government sector has a

lot of potential. Besides the government’s consumption, its recommendations will be

helpful in supporting other departments and institutes. Education is another important

field because we feel campuses are the breeding grounds, as the next generation will adopt

these things much faster.

What are the products that are being developed in India? SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">

Today, we

are developing all the payment technologies in India. Some parts of our E-business engines

are developed here and even large customized E-commerce projects are undertaken in India.