18th Session of the UN Commission on Science & Technology for Development (CSTD)

[Geneva; 4-8 May 2015]

Statement on Agenda Item 3  - ''Progress made in the Implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society at the Regional and International Levels ”

MadamChairperson,

1. At the outset, allow me to thank the CSTD Secretariat for its two reports, namely Implementation of ‘WSIS Outcome: A Ten Year Review’ and ‘Mapping of International Internet Public Policy Issues’.  These reportsprovide useful information and analysis on the achievements or otherwise in implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), and possible way forward to address these issues.

Madam Chairperson,

2. India fully recognizes the role of ICTs as an important tool and enablingfactor for inclusive social and economic development particularly with regard to universalizing access to a wide range of services and applications in various social sectors such as education, health, women and child development, agriculture, employment generation, financial inclusion, gender equity, and empowerment of those who left behind in the process.This assertion is borne out of our own national experience. We believe that ICTs have the capability to provide a way-forward to nations to leap-frog several challenges, and provide solutions to issues, which otherwise are difficult to address through conventional approach.

3. It is clear that reasonable progress has been made in implementing WSIS outcomesover the past decade; however, much remains to be done in extending the potential benefits of the information society to all, in addressing new challenges that have arisen from its development, and in adopting to the continued innovation that is taking place in information and communication technologies and the services that they enable. The expansion of ICTs has also increased wide ranging disparity in their use between developed and developing countries. In order to overcome these challenges, the Ten Year Review has highlighted the need for prioritizing ICTsunder international cooperation through enhanced flow of ODA commitments by OECD countries. We fully support this observation and call upon developed countries to come forward.

4. One aspect of WSIS outcomes that has not been realized relates to ‘Enhanced Cooperation’ as reflected in the Tunis Agenda of 2005. This provides us to introspect, and also give food for thought on ways to advance it in the Post-2015 WSIS frameworks. We also note that the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has made significant progress with regular meetings, and that the UN General Assembly should consider the question of extension to its term beyond 2015 during the forthcoming High Level meeting scheduled later this year in New York. We have consistently held the view that the ‘Enhanced Cooperation’ and IGF are distinct but complimentary to each other.

Madam Chairperson,

5. We wish to touch on the report on Mapping of International Internet Public Policy Issues,which identified 41 international public policy issues pertaining to internet, organized in seven broad clusters - the first cluster addressing infrastructure and standardization issues, while the other six clusters dealing with broad policy issues relevant in offline and online environments.  The study has rightly pointed out the challenges related to holistic approach aimed at protecting public interest in regulatory and technical aspects of internet governance.

6. The Mapping Exercise has brought out, on one handexistence of mechanisms to deal with international public policy issues pertaining to internet; on the other hand it did acknowledge the absence of mechanisms for a range of issues as well as international legal frameworks to implement the existing regulations. The development of international legal framework for online privacy and data protection, including issues like human rights, trade standardization and security perspectives, needs to be addressed.  The debate on international internet governance should continue to focus on providing equal footing to the national governments to address the whole range of issues associated with it, including the implementation dimensions.We, therefore, look forward to Member States coming up with an effective international mechanism with an enhanced role for Governmentsin international internet governance at the deliberations to take place in the UN General Assembly later this year.

7. Given the benefits of ICTs, there is an urgent need to carry forward the success of ICTs in developing countries mainly to LDCs and LLDCs by further enhancing its scope and fine-tuning the delivery mechanism through the process of re-engineering, focusing on integrated services and interoperable systems, by making best use of emerging technologies like Cloud, Mobile, In-memory database, etc.

Thank you.

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