Jagmohan made his stance clear at one of the functions held on Monday to mark World Telecom Day while Kumar made his statement later at a seminar on telecom and e-commerce organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Jagmohan said that the step was essential in order to protect domestic equipment manufacturers. "It was done mainly to defend the indigenous telecom equipment manufacturers since they have been badly hit by the advent of multinational companies," he said.

The minister said that he had made the recommendation after assessing the entire issue and felt it was in the bestinterest of the country to protect indigenous industry.

The Union government recently withdrew the concessional custom duties on equipment like wireless in local loop (WiLL), digital loop carrier (DLC) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) equipment. The duties were brought down from 55 per cent to 22 per cent by the Deve Gowda government, a step criticised by local manufacturers.

Earlier, while addressing a seminar on e-commerce as part of the World Telecommunication Day celebrations, Jagmohan said there was an urgent need to address the legal and regulatory aspect of electronic commerce, one of the most useful applications of the internet.

"Electronic commerce is changing the way business is transacted and is viewed as a large potential, which may turn the way in which business will be conducted in future," said Jagmohan.

In most of the areas where electronic commerce progressed, it did so by allowing the producer of the service to reach the consumer directly without the need for a middleman oragent, he said.

Such development was, however, not without potential threat of major scams or scandals and therefore it required a strong legal framework, or "cyberlaws" to handle the issue.

Earlier, minister of state for communication Kabindra Purkayastha said that in order to maximise the benefits to developing countries and to minimise associated threats, there was an urgent need to negotiate international agreements on the legal and regulatory architecture for electronic commerce, internet banking and trade of securities.

Jagmohan also gave away the Sanchar Doot Awards, the highest in the DoT, to six officials for the year 1999. The awardees include telecom mechanic Sukanta Sardar, chief telephone supervisor Orissa Gouranga Das, Sr ToA Tamil Nadu circle K Pachainayaki, TTA Gujarat Shambhoo Sharan Shukla, Sr section supervisor Chennai MR Sunder Raj and machine operator Mumbai Harish Desai.

Speaking at the Ficci seminar, Anil Kumar said that infrastructure required for strengthening the informationbackbone will be put in place so that e-commerce can penetrate into the society.

On the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 being replaced with new legislation, Kumar added that the government had referred this matter to the Law Commission and also set up a group within the Telecom Commission to look into it.