Email service providers such as Yahoo, Gmail, Microsoft and others could soon be asked to route all emails accessed in India, through servers based here, even if the mail account was registered or made in a foreign land. The move comes in the wake of instances where security agencies could not have a real-time access to some emails as they were registered outside the country but were opened in India.
According to sources, the Department of IT has been asked to inform email service providers on this subject.
During a high-level meeting held in the office of Union Home Secretary RK Singh, on December 29, 2011, the Department of Information Technology was asked to take up the matter with providers of services such as Gmail, Windows Mobile Active Email, Nokia Intellisync Email, Yahoo mail and others.
Government also has plans to establish an India-centric Skype service. The ‘Indian Skype’ may be used by government officials to communicate with each other.
In the meeting attended by members of intelligence, and telecom department Gulshan Rai, the Director General of CERT-in, said that Yahoo automatically locates all email accounts registered in India to the server in India. However, Yahoo accounts registered outside India and subsequently accessed from India are routed through servers outside India.