Chennai: The Digital India initiative also includes cyber security and the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “set up cyber security coordination centre at national level in a big way,” to counter the threat posed by malware or hacking, according to Union law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“We are quite alive to the cyber threat to the country’s security. Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, who has said that cyber security is a bloodless war, has taken it up with several countries… He is taking the lead. The National Cyber Security Coordination Centre will ensure near real time threat assessment and situational awareness that will help in analysing and generation of timely alerts and periodic reports,” he said.
Speaking at the Regional Editors’ Conference here on Thursday, he said this coordination centre project has been approved for implementation and technical approach and implementation plan has been prepared.
The government would undertake a massive training for police and judicial officials on the issue. “India can become a big centre for cyber security resource training for professionals,” Mr. Ravi Shankar added.
He claimed that Mr Modi’s populist schemes like the Digital India, Make in India, Skill India, Start up India and Stand up India were “all game changing programmes.”
“If you have passion and commitment change can happen. A classic example of good governance is the Jan Dhan scheme. About 22 crore bank accounts were opened within nine months of launching the scheme, fetching the government Rs 33,000 crore money from the poor people who will receive government subsidies directly to their account,” he added.
The e-commerce was another area that witnessed transformation for the better. The India Post payment Bank to be launched in April next year would take banking to the doorsteps of the people. It would utilise the vast network of 1.5 lakh post offices.
About 50 national and international consortium were keen on participating in this banking and third party delivery services, the minister added.
Earlier, upon arriving at Chennai airport, Prasad said steps would be taken to clear backlog of pending cases in courts in India. Asked about the IT sector, he told reporters that it was functioning “effectively” under Mr Narendra Modi’s rule.
Centre to mandate cellphone makers to ensure sos, GPS on devices
In a move that could help the police respond faster to distress calls, the Centre has proposed to mandate cellphone manufacturing firms to provide SOS button and also GPS on the devices they produce to ensure greater security for women, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.
“Every mobile phone should have those facilities. Once the SOS button is pressed the police and parents will be alerted and the GPS will help tracking the position of person,” Mr. Ravi Shankar said during his interaction with media at the Regional Editors conference organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) here on Thursday.
The minister who earlier elaborated how the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India campaign has been revolutionising several core sectors including banking and industries, said the SOS and GPS would “give proper security response.”
He asserted that the digital profile of India transformed after Mr. Modi initiated the Digital India campaign.
“Mr. Modi raised the slogan: IT is equal to IT. That is India’s Talent plus Information Technology is equal to India Tomorrow,” the minister said and claimed that India accounted for 103 crore mobile phone users and since the last two years additional 12 crore mobile phones were added. “This is equal to the population of France or Italy.
Further, six crore mobile handsets were manufactured in 2014-15 at a value of Rs 19,000 crore and the number increased to 11 crore the next year at Rs 54,000 crore. This year, production was expected to touch Rs 94,000 crore mark, he added.
