Every Indian
is feeling conceited and buoyant with various revolutionary initiatives in
Digital world launched by the present government under leadership of Prime
Minister Hon. Narendra Modiji. All of us are certain that these seeds of
Digital revolution may it be in form of Mission Digital India or Skill India
program will certainly bear fruits in coming years. These seeds are sown with a
futuristic view and young millennial generation of India is likely to enjoy
theses fruits.
After a long
time such a futuristic view and concrete steps for achieving the same have been
initiated by government. Modiji need to be complimented for the same. Also all
his team needs a huge round of applause for incessantly working for achieving
the same.
But sadly
it’s worthy to mention that all is not well in this Mission Digital India
campaign. If we consider what could be outcome of the Mission Digital India after few years, I am bit afraid
of predicting the same. Let me try to predict the same.
Presently
Digital population of Indian users may be around 25-30 million as per very
conservative estimates and if 25% of them use it for banking as well as online
shopping activities then we have roughly 10 million Indian population online.
If considering they carry out monetary transactions worth Rs.500 each on weekly
basis the amount involved is Rs.20, 000Million per month.
Now if Cyber
Criminals target only 1% of these users, then also they are able to garner
about 200 Million per month. Is it unbelievable?
Unfortunately
none of us is prepared to accept the statistics presented above as it makes us terrifying
about the whole scenario and these numbers does not have authenticity from any
statistical wing of the government.
But even if
the statistics may be doubted but it can not be denied that Cyber criminals are
acting more vigorously in this niche domain of crimes.
And to top
it all the role of Banks, Police, Educational Institutions and judiciary needs
a careful scrutiny. To start with Bank, none of them is actively engaged in
awareness about the cyber security and preventive tips. What limited they are
doing is only lip service. The apex bank i.e. Reserve Bank of India is sitting
on huge corpus meant for DEPOSITOR EDUCATION AND AWARENESS FUND since last few
years. But none should question them!!!!!!
As reporting
and investigation about such related crimes are concerned all is not too well.
Our police machinery is not well educated to understand the magnitude and
damaging capacity these crimes posses. They are yet to come out of traditional
jurisdiction mind set and hence recurrently refuse to even register FIR, leave
the hope for investigation of the same. Many a times it is observed that police
are even not aware about provisions of Information Technology Act. Hence they
register these crimes under IPC sections. Another difficulty with police is
investigation as they don’t have well equipped Cyber Forensic Labs to analyse
the modus operandi etc.
Fortunately
Maharashtra Government under leadership of CM Devendra Fadanvisji has promised
to set up Cyber Forensic Lab in every district place at Maharashtra. This will
be a huge moral booster for Police in Maharashtra and people from Maharashtra
can expect that situation will improve in coming days.
As regards
to educational institutions less said is better as very few government schools
and colleges have initiated such Cyber Awareness Training Programs and unless
they are directed from top, they won’t initiate. In the case of CBSE
institutions, CBSE has long issued directions for initiating few measures as
regards Cyber Bullying etc. but whether these are functional needs a research.
Last ray of
hope is Judiciary but here also all is not well!!!! The first trial court specially
established to look after Civil Litigation under Cyber Contraventions is scarcely
functional. Information Technology Secretary of each state is nominated to look
into these matters but hardly any IT Secretary across all Indian states is
serious about this additional mission given to them.
The
appellate tribunal set up above Adjudicator is also non-functional since last 6
years as there is no appointment of the Chairperson of this CAT.
All other
civil courts are barred from entertaining matters involving cyber
contraventions and hence their jurisdiction can not be invoked.
So overall
view of banking, educational, judicial and police mechanisms is not so
encouraging currently and success of Mission Digital India can not be said to
be in safe hands. What needs to be done is to identify these silent killers in
this ambitious and much needed project and weed them out.
Unless
Modiji act tough on these silent killers, in my view damage of the mission will
be enormous and one of the finest projects will never take off the way it
should be!!!!
Hence this
appeal to PM Modiji for weeding out these damaging factors!!!!!