Digital India & Cyber Security

The Indian government has embarked on a programme to turn the country into a digital economy.

- John Pereira

It has unveiled a series of initiatives—from introducing Digital Locker, which eliminates the need for people to carry hard copies of documents issued by the government, to demonetization, which has spurred the use of digital payments across the country. The move towards a digital economy is likely to help trigger a fresh wave of economic growth, attract more investment, and create new jobs, across multiple sectors.

However, it also poses a big challenge, that of cyber security. With the move towards a digital economy, increasing amount of consumer and citizen data will be stored digitally and a large number of transactions will be carried out online, by companies, individuals as well as government departments. That makes India a bigger target for cyber-criminals and hackers. Various stakeholders, especially Indian companies, need to be better prepared to handle this threat. Today, digital India cannot do without the protective wall of cyber security.

Ground Reality

From smartphones and broadband networks to cloud computing and business data analytics, the Information Technology (IT) industry has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade in India. It is expanding with each passing day. The government aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy by promoting accessibility of digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen and ushering in an era of e-governance at strategic levels.