India gives 60 days to RIM to provide data access to Blackberry services

Indian government has averted the ban on BlackBerry services for two more months after the device’s maker, Research In Motion, proclaimed that it would give security agencies greater access to corporate e-mail and instant messaging.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, it would review the situation in 60 days after the DoT studies the likelihood of routing BlackBerry services through a server in India. RIM has made certain plans for legal access by law enforcement agencies and these would start operating instantaneously. The possibility of the solutions offered would be reviewed later.
If this ban takes place about 1 million BlackBerry users would have been affected in the country.
RIM has unwillingly agreed to New Delhi’s demands for instantaneous access to encrypted corporate e-mail, telling previously it is technically impossible to provide.
According Nokia India Managing Director D. Shivakumar, the decision by Nokia Corp. — Research In Motion’s major competitor in India — to set up a server in the country to facilitate government monitoring may have damaged RIM’s dealing position. The company will now install a server in India in November to ensure government access to the data.
This problem which extended all round the globe, made Research In Motion’s stock price to a 16-month.
Indian officials stated that they are not eager to ban the BlackBerry but they won’t compromise on national security.
Security concerns flared after the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008, which was coordinated using mobile phones, satellite phones and voice-over Internet phone calls. And the security agencies feel that Commonwealth games can be the major target.
Indian officials have also raised anxiety about Skype and Google, though both companies yet to receive formal notice of an inquiry.