In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister for Communications & IT, has said that the Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) is expected to be launched by the end of the current financial year (thus, before the end of March 2016), and will be progressively operationalised. Hat tip: Amlan Mohanty As per the minister: - the CMS will allow interception and monitoring by state and central law enforcement agencies - will operate on a case by case basis - The information will be transferred to the law enforcement agencies without being seen by the "provisioning agency" (probably, telecom operator). - There will be a review committee under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary at the Central government level, and Chief Secretary of the State at the State Government level. - "Additionally, there is an inbuilt mechanism of check and balance as Security Agencies/Law Enforcement Agencies cannot provision the target and the provisioning agency cannot see the content." The minister also mentioned that this system is covered by law, more specifically, "section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 read with rule 419A of Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007" A copy of the entire answer below. MediaNama's take This is in line with what Milind Deora, former Minister of State for IT, said when I'd asked him about the CMS, privacy and surveillance a few years ago. The government has changed, but what was being done then is still being done. It's not lost on us that the…
