WHO ARE SILENT KILLERS OF MODIJI’S MISSION DIGITAL INDIA?

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!!!!!