May 16, 2000
The IT (Information Technology) India Act 2000 makes hacking a penal offence, punishable with imprisonment or fine under Section 66. The IT act also allows only limited privacy, and asks for private keys of higher levels of encryption to be submitted to the government.

September 17, 2000
The Indian Home Affairs Minister recommends a scheme to put in place a multipurpose national citizen identity card and a computerised citizens database to 'check the influx of illegal emigrants.'

December 29, 2000
A man, whose name was given as 'Abu Shamal', is killed in a pre-dawn police raid on suspicion of being a terrorist. Abu Shamal worked in a computer centre and cyber cafe called Knowledge Plus, in Okhla. The Delhi Police had been scrutinising his email messages.

January 03, 2001
The National Cyber Cop Committee—set up by the Indian software industry body, NASSCOM—is advised by a group of hackers between the ages of 14 and 19.

February 15, 2001
India witnessed the first two cases to be registered under Section 66 of the IT Act 2000.
The first case is registered in Raigarh in the newly-formed state of Chattisgarh—two people are arrested. The second case of hacking is registered by the Delhi Police against two partners of a Web hosting company.

March 13, 2001
A city court directs the Delhi Police Special Cell to constitute a team of computer experts to look into the possibility of encrypted messages being hidden within the large number of image files seized from the computer hard drive of a person who was also an acquaintance of 'Abu Shamal'.

April 14, 2001
The Draft Communications and Convergence Bill is shortly to be placed before Parliament in India. It makes provisions for the mandatory licensing of multimedia web content providers, enables interception and surveillance of messages in the interest of 'national security' and makes the transmission of content deemed 'obscene' a punishable offence.

May 06, 2001
A Delhi teenager is arrested under the IT Act 2000 for having put up what is considered to be an 'obscene' website. The teenager is sentenced by a juvenile court to 14 days judicial custody at the juvenile remand home in Timarpur, North Delhi.

May 15, 2001
Mumbai cops place obstacle on information superhighway. To plug into a terminal, net users will need to show ID cards at cyber cafes, and foreigners will need to show passports or flight tickets.

June 4, 2001
A Prisoner Identification and Tracking System is implemented as a pilot project at the Cherrapalli Prison in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The 150 acre prison houses over 3000 inmates, and is the first prison in the country to experiment with this technology. The prison authorities have installed local positioning systems, which provide real time information on the movements and whereabouts of the prisoner, who has a label tagged on to him. If the label is removed, an alarm is triggered.

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