Lack of education in digital technology and limited facilities for training personnel are inviting increasing threat of digital crime

The government of India leads India towards technological capability and transformation by joining MyGov, Government e-Market, DigiLocker, Bharat Net, Startup India, Skill India, and Smart Cities as part of the Digital India program to transform the country into a digital economy. All these steps towards the digital economy have been taken vigorously to help trigger a new wave of economic growth, attract more investment, and generate new jobs in many sectors. However, we also face a major cybersecurity challenge with them.

Recently, the Government of India, using Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, banned 59 apps manufactured and operated by our neighbor China, including TicketLock, ShareIt, Cam Scanner, etc. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has cited data security and privacy concerns as the biggest basis for this ban. Due to the ban on Chinese equipment by India, the credibility of Chinese companies in the global market has been affected. The present era has come as an opportunity for India. Therefore, while holding the pulse of time, India will have to work towards a long term strategy and move towards digitization, only then will we be able to beat China and end our dependence on it forever.

In the year 2015, the Government of India launched a huge campaign called "Digital India" across the country to make government services accessible and accessible to the common man in different parts of the country. The main objective of this was to improve the accessibility of technology by the people of the country. Since then our government has worked on improving internet connectivity and ensured that the internet is easily accessible to remote and rural parts of the country. One of the initiatives in this was to connect rural parts of the country with high-speed internet. The project is run by an organization of the Government of India called Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL).

We have set out on the digital path that new threats of the digital world have come to the fore, new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning have also brought new challenges for cybersecurity. Internet technologies have become a fraudulent business for hackers, India's less literate people do not have a cyber-security mindset. People still do not understand the cyber risks and they are not aware of most cyber attacks, the lack of cybersecurity professionals in our country, especially at the rural level, taking advantage of the cyberbullies, extremists, and terrorists to wreak havoc within our system are creating.

If we talk about internet access in India, then the BharatNet project is hanging in the balance here, which talks about giving internet connection to 2.5 lakh villages. Most small and medium scale industries in our country are struggling to adapt to modern technology because of Wi-Fi hotspots and slow roll-out compared to other developed nations. Not only this, but our smartphones have also limited capabilities for smooth internet access, and thereby limited outreach. Lack of education in digital technology and limited facilities for train personnel are inviting the increasing threat of digital crime and India is grappling with the need for cybersecurity experts to investigate and monitor them.

It is not that the Government of India is not making any efforts towards removing these problems. The National Digital Literacy Mission 2020 is aimed at making at least one person digitally literate in every household in India. The National Digital Communications Policy-2014 strives to provide universal broadband connectivity at a speed of 50 Mbps to every citizen. Steps are being taken towards the connectivity of 1 Giga Bytes per second by the end of 2020 and 10 Giga Bytes per second by the year 2022 to all Gram Panchayats. Along with all this, India is coordinating with countries like the US, UK, and Israel to adopt best practices in terms of information sharing and cybersecurity. To tackle the challenge of cybersecurity, the Government of India also introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha during the winter session.

But now we need to do something special in this changing era, the government will have to encourage young entrepreneurs in the development of Indian equipment in place of banned Chinese equipment so that they can build a new India by new innovative ideas. For quick construction of any technical project, single-window clearance, availability of funds, and facility of no objection certificate is very important. Our government should work fast in this direction. Currently, the ban on Chinese equipment is a good opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs to fill the void created in the market. If we make new efforts today, on the strength of technically skilled Indian professionals, Hindustan can become the main center of digital innovation in the world.