NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the country’s progress is not possible without ensuring cybersecurity, which has become integral to national security in the backdrop of ever-increasing use of internet data.
Speaking at the function to mark the first foundation day celebrations of the I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre) in the national capital, Shah asked the cybersecurity agencies to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify the modus operandi of criminals duping people, spreading fake news and abusing women and children online. “India hosts around 46 per cent or almost half of global digital transactions, making the job of these agencies challenging,” he said.
The I4C, established in 2018, is a department under the MHA, which is tasked with establishing a national-level coordination centre to address all cybercrime-related issues. On the occasion, Shah also launched four platforms of the I4C — cyber fraud mitigation centre, ‘Samanvaya’ platform, a cyber commandos programme and a suspect registry.
“I would urge you to use AI to identify the modus operandi deployed by criminals... This will help you to find new ways to fight cybercrimes,” he said, while asking the cybersecurity agencies to shun the age-old protocol of “need to know” and adopt the “duty to share” approach to take forward fight against online crimes.
Citing figures to show how Internet and cyber penetration has increased in the country, Shah said, “We have 95 crore Internet users as of March 31, compared to 25 crore during the same time period in 2014.”
He added that in 2014, as many as 600 panchayats were linked to the Internet, which has reached 2.13 lakh now.
“Seven lakh kilometres of optical fibre cable has been laid, data download speed has increased, the cost has decreased and Internet consumption has risen 78 per cent over a period of time,” the minister noted, adding that in 2024, India saw UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions worth about `20,64,000 crore, which is 46 per cent of the global digital transactions.
“This makes our work challenging and hence protection against cyber fraud is required,” he said, while flagging issues such as the illegal sale of important personal data over the Internet, spread of fake news, tool kits, online harassment and abuse of women and children.
Highlighting the ‘1930’ national cyber helpline telephone number, the home minister said there is an urgent need to popularise this as part of a special campaign, which is going to be launched by I4C from Wednesday to spread awareness about cybercrimes.
Shah also stressed effective counter-measures against cybercrimes while asserting that the country’s development was “impossible in current times” without keeping cybersecurity in mind. He called for “greater coordination” among the agencies of the Centre and states as this combat cannot be undertaken by one organisation alone.
He said the government has planned to train and prepare 5,000 cyber commandos over the next five years to deal with such digital crimes.
Scale of digitalisation
According to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in 2014, as many as 600 panchayats were linked to the Internet, which has reached 2.13 lakh in 2024. Over this period, 7 lakh kilometres of optical fibre cable has been laid, data download speed has increased, the cost has decreased and Internet consumption has risen 78 per cent. In 2024, India saw UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions worth about `20,64,000 crore, which is 46 per cent of the global digital transactions, the minister said.