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Logged out: Cyber cafes aren't too hot

web-admin — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0800

RITWIK DONDE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2006 12:00:32 AM]

MUMBAI: When cyber cafés began mushrooming across Indian cities they were considered a window to the world, a source of knowledge and information. Parents and teachers were a happy lot, expecting the youth to make full use of the new technology.

But, having coming under constant security scanner and being touted as shady joints promoting vices, the industry seems to be in the doldrums, with a majority of small players exiting the business.

There are about 200,000 cyber cafés in the country with more than 80% owned by individuals. Say café owners in the city, “It is getting difficult to conduct business with impending cyber café regulations and escalating operating costs. An average private cyber café gets about 50-60 footfalls in a day while the likes of Reliance Web World have 125 footfalls per day per store.”

Says Dilip Chaitalia, a café owner in South Mumbai, “Our footfalls have gone down by nearly 50%, with overall business decreasing by as much as 25%.” Also the cost of technology is rising with the advent of faster printers, webcams and regular software upgrades, he adds.

Café owners say business has been hit mainly by the impending regulations to police the cafes. “Our net earnings are even lower than a salaried job for the same skill set,” says Neelkanth Shanbaug, owner, Grafiti Cyber Café in Mumbai.

Where we used to earn Rs 100 an hour a few years ago, the rate has gone down to Rs 10-15 an hour along with the usage time. And now with regulations stating there would be a need to maintain an electronic log book of customers and monitor activity in the café, our costs would increase even more driving down margins, he adds.

Asserts Sarup Chowdhary, Director & CEO, Reliance World, “The compliance with the new rules and regulations would ensure a secure access but one that comes at a cost.” To put into effect rules like customer identification and constant monitoring of the premises, would mean an addition to the operating expenditure for all the players.

While the bigger cafes would be better off with this back-end addition it would be damaging to the smaller individual players, he adds. Reliance World which has as many as 25 outlets in the city offering internet access has not seen any physical growth in this number since its inception. An increasing number of smaller players are putting their hands up and saying they cannot afford to pump in the excess capital needed for the business.

Experts say that the biggies like Reliance can afford to play the volume games they can house as many 5,000 PCs in their cafes, the small guys can do with only 5-6 PCs. The downtrend in the industry may also be a reason why Reliance World now offers value-added services like video conferencing, video resumes and video mails to attract more users.

The fall in the use of cyber cafes is reflected in a recent survey by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International has revealed cyber cafe users have declined from 52% in ’03 to 39% in ’06. Increased home PC usage and higher broadband penetration is also affecting cyber cafe footfalls. However, not all industry players believe cybercafes are becoming less attractive.

According to a latest survey conducted by AC Nielsen, as many as 34% users now surf the internet from cybercafes, 30% from home, while internet users from offices have fallen to around 20%. Explaining the fall, Dr Subho Ray, President, IAMAI says that the rise in Web 2.0 applications like blogging and the growing e-commerce business have also contributed to an increasing number of users preferring the privacy of their homes over public access points.

Says Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider, less dependence on shared access and stricter regulations are making the case worse for the small entrepreneur in this industry. “The opportunities are huge and globally the e-commerce business is growing but the odds are stacked against us,” he adds.

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Can’t let states spoil the surf, feels Nasscom

web-admin — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700

The Economic Times, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

K YATISH RAJAWAT AND RITWIK DONDE

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police’s decision to regulate internet cafes as public amusement places through a gazette notification has boiled over into a national issue. Nasscom, along with other national bodies, is trying to get the IT Act amended to regulate the cafes. The objective is to prevent state government and state police from coming up with their own norms to regulate the cafes.

The move to put in place a centralised legislation gained momentum after ET first reported (in issue dated September 22, ’06) the Mumbai Police’s initiative to regulate the cyber cafes in the city.

Sunil Mehta from Nasscom told ET, “There has to be a national debate on the issue of policing the cyber cafes and other access points for the World Wide Web.” There is definitely a need to have a central law to monitor cyber cafes in the country instead of the piecemeal regulation that exists in the different states presently, he said. It is very important to realise that the internet has become a vital issue for national security.

The Indian IT Act is modelled on the EU legislation on e-commerce. IT Act section 79 has been revised to bring-out explicitly the extent of liability of intermediaries like ISPs and internet cafes in certain cases. The IT Act provides the power to make rules for “intermediary” including “cyber cafes” under section 87. Though, no specific rules have been framed. The lack of any legislation has given the state government the freedom to pursue their own rules.

“Currently, the state governments are not mature enough to frame IT laws and also there is no deliberation with the players in the business before framing such laws,” says Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider. Cyber cafe regulations in Bangalore and Chennai propose maintaining internet caches and cookies for a year. The UP government is even proposing a ban on online chatting in cyber cafes. All these legislations are clearly an evidence that there needs to be consistency in framing the laws.

Says Subho Roy, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India, “There is a lot of ambiguity in the laws governing cyber cafes at the moment. Different states have varied rules on cyber cafes, thus the need to have a central legislation.” The laws should also be simple and same for all the players in the business, otherwise small local players would be forced to wind up their business , he added.

Industry watchers also say that over-rigorous implementation and variance in laws among states would lead to the small internet cafe owners being forced to sell their business to bigger players like Reliance WebWorld, Sify iWay and others.
According to a recent gazette notification, the Mumbai police wanted to license all internet cafes in the city, classifying them under the public amusement category. Each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.

The state government had published a notification to seek public feedback on the proposed rules, which give the police the discretion to reject a licence. After the ET report on the issue and a deluge of feedback to the state police department, the police decided to reduce the fees per computer to Rs 75.

According to the draft rules, a no objection submission from the landlord/society where the cyber cafes conduct their business, along with NOCs from the civic body’s health and other departments, will also be needed. The rules do not, however, cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls and email communications.

The rules seek to identify internet cafes on the basis of whether online gaming is being carried out there. The city police has wanted to regulate internet cafes for the past three years but the urgency appears to have increased after the investigations in the 7/11 blasts.

Highlights Higher licence fees would mean small players selling off to corporate players like Reliance WebWorld and Sify iWay, say industry watchers.

Cyber cafe regulations in Bangalore and Chennai propose for maintaining internet caches and cookies for a year
The Uttar Pradesh state government is even proposing a ban on online chatting in cyber cafes .Mumbai Police wants each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.Rules do not cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls

Mumbai cops to invade cyberspace

web-admin — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:16:46 -0700

K YATISH RAJAWAT AND RITWIK DONDE in Ecomomic Times report

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 03:24:28 AM]

MUMBAI: This time round, they don’t want to be left limping in the chase. The 7/11 blasts have spooked the Mumbai police into tightening the noose around cyber crime. With terrorists using internet-based communication to manage their sleeper cells and plan operations, the Mumbai police wants to monitor the city’s cyber cafes.

The police wants to licence all internet cafes in the city, classifying them under the public amusement category. Each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.

The state government has published a notification to seek public feedback on the proposed rules, which give the police the discretion to reject a licence. According to the draft rules, a “no objection submission” from the landlord/society where the cyber cafes conduct their business, along with NOCs from the civic body’s health and other departments, will also be needed.

The rules do not, however, cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls and email communications. The rules seek to identify internet cafes on the basis of whether online gaming is being carried out there.

The city police has wanted to regulate internet cafés for the past three years but the urgency appears to have increased after the investigations in the 7/11 blasts. A top Mumbai police official told ET that anti-nationals are increasingly becoming tech-savvy and hence, the need to police such places. The police had also planned to impose a 11 pm deadline on cyber cafes, he added.

“The move is to get these commercial outlets to be more responsible... The gazette has sought public opinion and if people feel there is a need to address certain points, they’re welcome,” he said.

Intelligence agencies in the US and the UK track Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications like emails and VOIP calls using technology tools. Unlike voice calls which can be tapped easily, IP communication is difficult to tap as the end-user device changes. Users can communicate from different computers, change email IDs, or communicate even through postings on blogs or websites.

Cyber cafes, though, are just one access point for terrorists. GPRS-enabled mobile phones, and access to the net through other personal computing devices are equally common.

Cyber cafe owners, on their part, feel the fees are too high, and bad for business.

On whether cyber cafes are often portrayed as “shady joints”, Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Providers, which has internet cafe owners as members says, “We are service providers and shouldn’t be penalised for users’ actions. Cyber cafes are not public entertainment places.” This fee would mean that half of the monthly earnings of an internet cafe owner would go towards acquiring the licence, and will effectively render small and medium-sized internet cafes unviable, he adds.

Earlier, the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police had initiated a move under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which made cyber cafe users show documents such as college or school IDs or driving licences as proof of identity and had the cyber cafes maintain a log book for users.

The Tamil Nadu police has also insisted on registration of all internet cafes in Chennai. This was done in an attempt to monitor Tamil militants using these cafes for communication. The registration fee, though, is Rs 75 per terminal.

Mumbai Cyber cafe owners comply with police orders despite loss of business

web-admin — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 22:05:00 -0700

Afternoon Daily, Mumbai STAFF REPORTER made a survey of various Mumbai city cyber cafes & is happy to note a wide compliance of the recent Mumbai police order on maintaining the registers although not everybody visiting a cyber café wants to share personal information to use the facility.

Read full story:

Cyber cafes in the city have started keeping logbooks and recording all the details of the visitors who visit them. The Mumbai police had issued a notification on August 15, for a 15-day trail, asking cyber cafes to maintain such a logbook in addition to asking for photo identity cards of visitors before allowing them to use the cyber cafe. Another similar notification was issued on August 31, and cyber café owners put these up at their cafes. In it, Police Commissioner A. N. Roy had said that anti-social elements may take advantage of cyber cafes in Mumbai and there are chances of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquillity, and there was grave danger to human lives as well as loss to the public property. On the condition of anonymity, a cyber café owner at Churchgate said, “Many of our visitors have understood the issue and are cooperating with us. In the initial stage some hesitated, but later they also started cooperating. As far as identifying any person who is involved in criminal activity, it should be very simple for us as their population in society is only one per cent and they should be able to be identified by their face only!” He added, “This order has brought our businesses down by about 15-20 per cent as some visitors argue and then go in search of other cafes where they might be allowed to use the facilities without identity cards. The police’s notification has become unaffordable for us as we have to keep one employee just to fill up the logbook. But this order is not followed by all cyber cafes in Mumbai as they do not want to lose their customers by inconveniencing them with personal details.” Khalique Batliwala of Cyberzone in Flora Fountain said, “After implementation of this rule you can be sure that terrorists will opt for something else, they will never use the same method for their plans. But as far as the checking is concerned, we have been doing this from earlier also, and in the initial stages visitors were not happy. But now that they understand why we have to do this, they started cooperating with us.” He further said, “As the Internet has become an important part of our lives, we get a lot of regular visitors and are familiar with them, but whenever we find anyone suspicious then we ask for identity cards or deny them entry.” Deputy Commissioner of Police R. N. Tadvi (Operations), said, “After the order most cyber café owners have started maintaining logbooks and are also allowing only those to enter who have valid identity cards. We are getting a good response from the cyber café owners as they understand our situation. As far as continuation of this order is concerned, until or unless the dust of security threats doesn’t settle down, this order will continue.”

Source cybernoon.com

Railway minister flags off first cyber cafe on Station

web-admin — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

The Statseman, Kolkotta reports about the Asansol station, for the first time in the history of Eastern Railways, will have a cyber cafe with 2 mpbs Internet broadband and audio-video conferencing

E-mail on 7/11 lands prankster in police net

web-admin — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

BHOPAL: "Mumbai blasts were to avenge the desecration of Meena Tai's statue." The source of this claim, sent via e-mail to a local Hindi daily turned out to be a 22-year-old errant youth, who meant this as a prank and had no connection with 7/11.

The police, however, were not amused when they worked relentlessly for six hours to track the source of the e-mail and finally picked up Sumit Tamrakar, a Class XII dropout who sent the mail from a cyber cafe in old Bhopal area.

Bhopal SP Anant Singh received a call from the daily in the early hours of Wednesday, informing him of the contents of the e-mail which claimed responsibility for Mumbai blasts.

Police track DGP kin’s daughter through e-mail

web-admin — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0800

Expressindia.com reports:
A FORTNIGHT after the daughter of Punjab DGP S S Virk’s relative eloped with a youth, the police tracked her down in Bangalore. The couple have been handed over to their parents.

Despite their efforts, the policemen could not trace the couple. Then, about three-four days back, the girl sent an e-mail to her maternal aunt in the USA asking for money.

The UT Police contacted various Internet operators and scanned the source of the email. After finding that the IP number was of Satyam, they procured the address of the cyber cafe from where she had sent the email.

A team of the UT Police Crime Branch, along with the girl’s parents, went to Bangalore yesterday. They caught the girl when she came to the cafe again. The boy was later nabbed too.

Cyber cafe boom to drive e-commerce craze in India

web-admin — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0800

Economic Times MUMBAI reports : Online commerce is projected to jump more than four times to about Rs 2,300 crore in ‘06-07 as a rapid growth in cyber cafes across the nation spur a craze for internet shopping.

Internet users did online business worth about Rs 570 crore in ‘04-05. The figure is expected to grow to Rs 2,300 crore by ‘06-07, according to a report titled ‘Online activities and e-commerce from cyber cafes’ conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

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