Union ministry of communications and information technology and the New York based think tank on international conflict resolution, EastWest Institute (EWI) on Tuesday announced that the third worldwide cyber security summit would be held in New Delhi on October 30-31, 2012. The New Delhi summit, which follows summits in Dallas and London, will be India’s first major international summit of cyber security experts from government, business, technology and civil society from around the world.

“India welcomes the decision of the EastWest Institute to bring this powerful forum to New Delhi. Working together with like-minded countries and businesses worldwide, India will work hard to assure that practical advances in cyber security are made and international cooperation advanced,” Sibal said. “The Government of India is pleased to see Indian institutions like FICCI and NASSCOM play a vital role as co-sponsors,” he added.

To combat cyber crimes and make the cyberspace secure, Sibal emphasised the need for greater government-to-government collaboration on sharing of information, global vision to deal with hackers, legal framework that addresses the requirements at the global, regional and local levels, robust crisis response mechanism, constant monitoring and development of new technology solutions and wider public-private collaboration.

“India is a vital market and policy creator in the global information technology industry,” said EWI Board chairman Ross Perot, Jr. “As such India is an essential partner in the international policy process. We are proud to bring the Summit to India.”

EWI and its Indian partners also launched the ‘New Delhi Summit Process,’ initially composed of three high-level working groups of Indian and international experts, each taking on a crucial cyber security issue. One group will develop ways to secure the global IT supply chain, which can be the source of security flaws in both software and hardware if left un-monitored.

Another will focus on agreements, standards, policy and regulations to secure the increasing share of our digital world powered by cloud computing. The third will focus on the competing interests of securing encryption and governments’ need for surveillance to protect security.

“We are excited to see the level of cooperation and partnership by the Indian side for the Summit. We are honored to be working with a distinguished group of Indian colleagues,” said EWI President John Edwin Mroz. “Existing international institutions are no match for 21st century problems,” Mroz noted.

The New Delhi Summit Process offers an unprecedented forum for policy innovation in what may be the greatest threat to the stability of our global digitalized world.

The launch function was also addressed by R Chandrasekhar, secretary, department of telecommunications, government of India; Mukesh Aghi, chairman, FICCI IT Committee and Som Mittal, president, NASSCOM.