BlackBerry to offer India access from September 1, says govt source

New Delhi: BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will give the Indian government access to encrypted data from September 1, while the Indian home ministry wants BlackBerry, Google and Skype to set up servers in India, a government source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

India says it wants to fully track and read BlackBerry's secure email and instant messaging services that officials fear could be misused by militants.

"They have given some access, which we will operationalise from September 1," the person said, referring to RIM.

"They will have to provide full access to all communications that go through India. They will have to set up a server in India," the person said.

Indian officials have also expressed concerns over security threats emerging from Internet-based messaging services from providers like Google and Skype.

Headway in standoff

Earlier on Monday, India gave the makers of BlackBerry a 60-day reprieve as it reported headway in a bid to settle a security standoff that could have seen key features of the smartphone shut down this week.

The announcement came after G.K. Pillai, the top home ministry bureaucrat, met with government officials, security chiefs and representatives of Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian manufacturers of BlackBerry, in New Delhi.

“The Home Ministry will review the security issue relating to Blackberry services within 60 days by which time the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) will submit its report," a government statement said.

India threatened earlier this month it would ban messages sent on the smartphones unless the company came up with a way for security agencies to decode the heavily encrypted traffic by August 31.