> India’s spokesman, Mr Dushyant Singh, argued that the proposal “should not be viewed as an attempt by governments to ‘take over’ or ‘regulate and circumscribe’ the Internet.”
If a politician says it isn't, then it probably is.
If the Internet is to be ruled the way Indian, South African and Brazilian governments work, expect to pay bribes to be able to do anything (I am Brazilian, I know what 3rd world "governance" means).
(As one example, I needed to use a VPN to get my dose of Savita Bhabi while I was over there.)
Feel bad that I can upvote you only once.
With India's definition of broadband still at 256kbps and they are 'aiming' to increase it to 2mbps by 2015, I would say the govt already has a lot on it's plate. More than it can deal with. They should just let someone else care about this kind of problems.
Several hundred of us spent about four hours queuing (standing in lines) in a stiflingly hot airport hall (over 40C), just to be allowed to leave and embark. At the head of each consecutive queue of several hundred people presided one of these officials with yet another poor quality paper form to be filled in, serving no logical purpose that I could discern apart from providing employment for these idiots. When I slowly worked my way to the head of the first queue, the official asked me (politely) to borrow my pencil, as he had nothing to fill the paperwork with!
They did not seem to think that there was anything at all unusual about any of this, presumably putting all travellers through this unnecessary hell. The very idea of controlling the Internet, which would necessarily end up this way, is the stuff of nightmares.
I am only relaying my personal experience, not having any particular wish to single out the Indian government for criticism. Unfortunately most governments share much the same motivation and 'efficiency' to various degrees. It is just one of the blessings of India that it makes one comprehend essential principles with greater depth and clarity than before.
Maybe they mixed up their CIRP acronym a little, it should have been called a CRAP proposal.
For such things, what we need is not closed door meetings that happen in lavish halls, but openly published specs/drafts/RFCs that people can comment upon and voice their opinions about.
All they need to do now is write up their proposal as a draft RFC and mass post it to important hacker mailing lists (open source, Internet engineering, standards groups) on April 1st, 2012.
Of course they will. They'll make all sorts of unilateral acts that benefit countries.
Consider the UN. It's all about govts, not people. It can't be anything else because it's a group of govts.
