The information technology act of India: A critique Dr. Udapudi Shobhalata V.*, Ghosh Barnik** *Associate Professor, Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. **Student, Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Abstract From the last decade onwards, the march of India in the Information Technology Sectors has been phenomenal. The main reason for this is because of the large number of contracts grabbed by the Indian Companies from its foreign compatriots. These contracts have been mainly for performing data processing activities of the foreign offshore companies. The amount of revenue which came in from the procedure and the subsequent businesses have been remarkable and has boosted the otherwise stagnant and agriculturally dependant Indian economy. The initial phrases of these operational businesses have been simple transcription centers where the details of the voice recordings used to be converted to digitalized data. But of late, this practice has been transformed into centers of processing knowledge where there is a complete research being performed on different fields and several varied domains including that of medicine, technology, media, business, accounts and even that of law. Even within the country there has been increasing use of computers. Be it Airline or train reservation system or the initiative towards online collection of direct and indirect taxes, there is great amount of data about individuals and businesses which is available in digital format. There have been concerns which have been raised from various quarters of scholars regarding the existent laws of information laws in India. Due to the increasing burden of technological transactions and entry of India into the unlimited and unbounded cyberspace made it compulsory for the Indian legislature to come up with the laws regarding control of technology in India. In the year 2000, the Information Technology Act, the first of its kind, was launched as an attempt to define the different aspects of cyber law in the country. It was also an instrument to address the misuse of e-information and subsequent securities which was proposed to be provided to the e-transactions which had tripled and increased its volume in multiple times in India. In this paper, the author will attempt to analyze the provisions of the IT Act, 2000 and also delve into analyzing the different aspects of the recent amendments which has been instrumental in combating the various current trends which are existing in combating cyber crimes. Though this will remain the basic theme of the paper, the author will also analyze the current trends in cyber crimes which are coming up. A comparative aspect has been drawn with different countries and their respective legislations in cyber laws. Finally, the author looks to a possible way ahead. Top |