CIITA keeps RP-SMA fracas 'local'

Withdrawing from its earlier stance of taking its struggle against Rashi Peripherals (RP) and Savera Marketing Agency (SMA) at the national level and asking associations across India for their cooperation in resolving the stalemate, Confederation of Indian IT Associations (CIITA) has decided to keep the issue local and is shortly coming up with a meeting to be held on December 15 on the sidelines of the Compass cricket tournament.

Officials in CIITA when asked about the response the confederation received after communicating the RP-SMA issue to other associations said, "As of now, we are focussing exclusively on the east and don't want to take the issue up at the national level. This issue is pertaining to east India only and we will keep it at the eastern level only".

CIITA had previously asked for cooperation and help from other associations across India previously and had received response over the matter from Punjab based PACT, with its secretary asking for the details of the matter on The DQ Week website.

In the last instance when CIITA opted to take the issue at the national level, Navin Gupta, vice president, CIITA had stated, "We have already communicated about the problem and our stance over the RP-SMA issue to all major associations in the west and south and are awaiting their response. Since the problem is not getting sorted out amicably and RP is denying some crucial pointers during the meeting on October 14, we need to take our struggle at the national level".

However, CIITA has now retracted again from its earlier move and will be keeping the issue at the local level.

The agenda of the meeting, although still unclear among CIITA officials seems to be revolving around the current scenario as a result of the stalemate as well as the alleged issue of Microsoft induced police raids in north Bengal and the international software conclave proposed earlier this year.

"The meeting will be held between our member associations. We have invited our members of CIITA during the Compass Premiere League to be held in Kolkata and on the sidelines of the tournament, we will have the meeting", said Rajiv Poddar, secretary, CIITA.

The confederation further said that it has received some complaints related to the alleged anti-piracy raids instigated by Microsoft in north Bengal and will discuss the issue in the meeting. Also, as a crucial point of discussion, CIITA will review the response its member associations has received after its appeal of voluntarily refraining from business deals with RP and SMA.