The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has setup a Digital Payment Monitoring Department to combat cyber risks involved in a digital economy
In the light of government’s push on digital payments following the demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the government has taken up various measure to secure digital economy from bloodless cyber wars. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has setup a Digital Payment Monitoring Department to combat cyber risks involved in a digital economy, told the minister for electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad while addressing an IDEA Exchange with The Indian Express group.
The department consists of undisclosed number of cyber security advisories and cyber security professionals. The minister told that the government provides massive “digital trainings,” and conducts “digital drills” to strengthen the cyberwall of digital payment system in India. After announcement on 8th November on note ban, “the department has conducted 200 drills till date,” said Prasad. He further said that the government will scale-up the department to ensure safety of digital payments in the country.
The minister of MeitY also told that the government has created Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-In) which consists of cyber auditors to monitors digital movements round the clock in the country.
Moreover, the ministry has told all the banks in India to immediately convey unusual movement on their site. “We have also issued advisory to all the banks and merchants to tackle certain measure against cyber risks,” said Prasad.
Talking about the digital payment ecosystem, the minister said that ensuring strong cyber walls is a continuous process and all the institutions dealing with payments should have cyber security auditors, “because cyber security has to be the part of the process,” said Prasad.
While addressing the session at Express’s IDEA Exchange, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “India is at cusp of big digital revolution. The powerful thrust on digital payment will empower India.”
To create a powerful ecosystem of digital payments, the government has launched a portal- Digitaljagriti.in to monitor progress of the Common Services Centres (CSCs), which was setup by the MeitY to provide digital financial literacy training and facilitating access to such instruments for rural citizens of India.
The project which gains significance after demonetisation, has 200,000 identified CSCs from 29 States & 7 UTs. The CSCs become Digital Finance Hubs to facilitate awareness and digital finance mechanisms for the targeted population.
The Digitaljagriti monitors realtime development of these CSCs, which are given target of 80 lakh individuals and about 20 lakh shopkeepers across rural or semi-rural areas of India. The trainings are digitally recorded at the portal for real time monitoring and quality check.
Emphasizing further on government’s acceleration on the drive on financial inclusion, the minister said from 8th November to 31st december the growth of digital payments has been rapid. He told, from 3.85 lakh Rupay cards on 8 November, the numbers have crossed 21 lakh on 31st December, and the transactions have grown to Rs 288 crore from Rs 39 crore. Similarly, the UPI transactions have increased to Rs 296 crores from Rs 1.93 crore on 8th of November 2016. Prasad said that E-wallets has the best performance as the transactions grew to Rs 296 crores on 31st December per day from Rs 88 crore per day in November.
According to the minister, the spread of digital economy is going to become 1 trillion economy in coming 3-4 years. He further added that “digital payment is going to push a innovative spree in india, better the product better the acceptability.”
Prasad asserted that digital economy will enlarge the tax kitty of the government and India will become more honest and accountable.