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STATS & STRATS The High-Wire Messenger A Kolkata-based company claims to own the world's most powerful encryption tool.
Here's a teaser for search engine freaks. Go to any search engine, and run a query for 488-bit encryption. The irrelevant-if not downright absurd-results indicate the world knows precious little about this nascent technology. Now, the story. The first ''secure'' instant messaging product, incorporating 488-bit encryption-touted to be 10, raised to 100 times more secure than the standard 128 bit encryption-now out in the market, is an Indian product. The product, called Global Whisper or GW, has been rolled out by Global Whisper Corporation, a 50:50 joint venture between the Kolkata-based Signotron India and three Silicon-Valley NRI VCs. GW incorporates Signotron's proprietary encryption technology with complete in-built security, based on the public key infrastructure technology. With file-support and data sharing and transfer provisions, GW aims to be a secure, integrated value-added messaging solution. The company is currently working on an extension of GW that will support video encryption also. Signotron India, a dedicated player in products based on encryption technology, boasts clients like the Indian Army, Defence Research and Development Labs, Ministry of Defence, and Wipro. In fact, EMD Armor, the US version of its first product 'Sigma 2000'-again based on the 448-bit encryption algorithm-is subscribed to by the US Air Force. Says Bitan Basu, General Manager, Signotron India: ''For GW, we are in talks with defence establishments and a host of corporate clients, including cellular phone companies.'' Way to go: just feed off that paranoia. -Rakhi Mazumdar Stand Alone Vern Mail The iStation e-mail box now speaks three vern tongues.
It looks and weighs like a personal organiser, although the iStation is much more than that. Now, the Bangalore-based iNabling Technologies has rolled out this stand alone (yes, but you still need a standard phone line) e-mail access device in Chennai, in a Tamil avatar. Weighing 770 grams, the gadget has a 256 kb-memory and can support English, Hindi, and Kannada (in addition to Tamil). Priced at Rs 7,000 and Rs 8,000 respectively, there are two versions of the product-iStation Premier and iStation Classic-with additional connectivity to printers and PCs being the key differentiator. iNabling Tech hopes to break even with sales of 7,000 pieces a month which the company hopes will happen by Q1, 2002. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the company was angel-funded in 1997 by pioneering NRI-technocrat B.V. Jagadeesh, the co-founder of Exodus Communications. Other investors in iNabling Tech include ICICI Ventures and Infinity Technology Investments. -Nitya Varadarajan Times, Taxing Times Mukesh Butani, Partner, Arthur Andersen, and member of the GOI's High- Powered Committee on E-commerce & Taxation, talks to Ashutosh Sinha, on the vexing issue.
Given the sorry state of the Internet sector, why tax e-commerce? Well, on grounds of neutrality, it is imperative that all forms of commerce be taxed equally. This would prevent businesses from disguising their business models as e-commerce by simply having offer and acceptance through a network without in any way charging the mode of delivery and payment. For example, there is no economic rationale to tax a transaction relating to sale of music CD differently, irrespective of whether one buys the CD from a physical store or downloads the contents. A lot of dotcoms have huge offline revenues. Will that too be e-commerce? Yes, there is no single definition for e-commerce. However, in its simplest form, e-commerce can be defined to be "the exchange of goods, services and information through network-enabled technologies". But can taxation keep pace with the rapid advances in technology? In fact, there is more to the issue. In borderless trade, anonymity of parties to the transaction and new methods of settlements would make it tough to apply the traditional tax concepts and prevailing legislations. That should explain the on-going debate on proposed change in the tax legislation. It is pertinent to note that domestic e-commerce does not create any new issues and existing principles can continue to be applied. The real challenge arises from cross border e-commerce wherein tax concepts such as source-based taxation (concept of permanent establishment) and residence-based taxation are becoming redundant in view of the technological advances. Tax coupled with incentives-will that work in this segment? Typically, tax incentives are granted as a temporary measure to provide a fillip to new industries. It is pertinent to note that only when dotcoms earn profits, will they be liable to tax. Further, there are a number of tax incentives that are already available to 'enablers' in the cyberworld, such as tax holidays for Internet Service Providers. India can take a cue from the United States Internet Tax Freedom Act, 1998, which granted a three year moratorium from levy of new taxes on e-commerce transactions. The moratorium has been extended for an additional five years. Does service tax on credit cards act as a disincentive to e-commerce? Service tax is currently levied on the charges for credit card services, and interest charged by the companies offering credit cards and not on the transaction amount per se. Further, with the introduction of online bill payments and e-cash, the use of credit cards online shall reduce substantially. Security concerns are lower in online bill payments, since the payer can give standing instructions to the bank on the biller. 1 2 |
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