New Delhi: The department of information technology will hold consultations with the law ministry on the IT (Amendment) Act, which deals with issues like cyber crime and data interception, within a couple of weeks.

“We have already put up the draft rules of the IT (Amendment) Act on the website and have also received comments...We expect to begin consultation with the law ministry in the next couple of weeks,” department of information technology secretary R Chandrashekhar told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

He said the draft rules have provisions pertaining to obligations on service providers and around interception of data and communication. The rules would also identify the authority that is to be vested with such responsibilities.

Chandrashekhar said that since the rules are of the stature of subordinate laws, they require interaction with the law ministry as well.

The Lok Sabha, in December 2008, had passed the IT Act Amendment Bill, which made publishing and transmitting obscene material in electronic form, and e-commerce frauds, punishable.

The amendments were introduced in the Information Technology Act, 2000, for countering cyber crimes such as publicising sexually explicit material in electronic form, data leakage and e-commerce frauds.

On the Semiconductor Policy, Chandrashekhar said, ”We had given in-principle approval to 12 companies, of which six have made substantial progress...Over the next 2-3 months, we expect to achieve financial closure.“

The companies, investing under Semicondcutor Policy, had been asked to achieve financial closures by the end of August.

Semiconductor Policy 2007 was announced to attract wafer fabrication plants and eco-system unit for semiconductor manufacturing.