Home Minister unveils 4Cs, 3As for cyber safe India
New Delhi, Feb 11: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday unveiled the government’s 4Cs – Convergence, Coordination, Communication, and Capacity - and 3 As - AI, Awareness, and Action blueprint for fighting cybercrimes with innovation with three basic cyberspace elements: software, services, and users.
Chairing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for MHA on ‘Cyber Security and Cyber Crime’ in New Delhi, the Home Minister said that to tackle cybercrime, the government had adopted four types of strategies, which include Convergence, Coordination, Communication, and Capacity.
“All of these are being implemented with clear objectives and a strategic approach,” he said.
Shah said that in recent years, there had been an expansion of digital infrastructure in India, which had naturally led to an increase in the number of cyber attacks.
He said that looking at cyberspace from a different perspective, it forms a complex network of ‘software,’ ‘services,’ and ‘users.’
The Home Minister emphasised that until considering controlling cyber fraud through ‘software,’ ‘services,’ and ‘users,’ it would be impossible to resolve the issues of cyberspace.
He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Home Affairs had taken several significant steps towards making India a cyber-safe nation.
Shah said that cybercrime had erased all geographical boundaries.
He said that it was a ‘borderless’ and ‘formless’ crime, as it had no limits or fixed form.
The Home Minister said that India had witnessed a ‘digital revolution’ in the last decade.
“Without understanding the size and scale of the ‘digital revolution’, we cannot face the challenges in the cyber domain,” he said.
Shah said that today, 95 percent of villages in the country were digitally connected, and 1 lakh gram panchayats were equipped with Wi-Fi hotspots.
“In the past 10 years, the number of internet users has increased by 4.5 times,” he said.
The Home Minister said that in 2024, a total of 246 trillion transactions worth Rs 17.221 lakh crore were made through UPI.
“In 2024, 48 percent of the global digital transactions took place in India,” he said.
Shah said that in terms of the startup ecosystem, India had become the third-largest country in the world.
“In 2023, the contribution of the digital economy to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was around Rs 32 lakh crore, which is 12 percent, and nearly 15 million jobs were created,” he said.
The Home Minister said that today India had become the third-largest country in terms of digital landscape in the world.
“The digital economy contributes 20 percent to the total economy of India,” he said.
Shah also mentioned that the Ministry of Home Affairs’ goal was to ensure zero cybercrime cases and their FIRs.
He mentioned that inter-ministerial and inter-departmental coordination within the Ministry of Home Affairs had been strengthened, ensuring seamless communication and smooth flow of information.
The Home Minister said that a healthy tradition of exchange of information between the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Electronics and IT, CERT-IN, I4C, and departments like Telecom and Banking had led to successfully tackling many cybercrime cases.
He emphasised the importance of raising awareness among the public to prevent cybercrime and requested all the members of the committee to promote the I4C helpline number 1930.
Shah stated that in light of cyber financial fraud, the '1930' helpline provides a one-point solution offering various services, such as blocking cards.
He said that efforts are underway to use Artificial Intelligence for identifying mule accounts, in coordination with the Reserve Bank and all banks, to establish a system for their detection.
The Home Minister said that we will ensure the closure of mule accounts before they are even operational.
He said that the government had also ensured that people are made aware of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra ‘Stop, Think, Take Action’ to make them more vigilant against cybercrimes.
Shah said that a total of 1.43 lakh FIRs had been registered on the I4C portal, and over 19 crore people had used this portal.
He said that for national security reasons, 805 apps and 3266 website links had been blocked based on I4Cs recommendations.
The Home Minister said that additionally, 399 banks and financial intermediaries had come on board.
“Over 6 lakh suspicious data points have been shared, more than 19 lakh mule accounts caught, and suspicious transactions worth Rs 2038 crore prevented,” he said.
Shah said that Cyber Crime Forensic Training Laboratories had been established in 33 states and union territories.
He said that on the ‘CyTrain’ platform, a ‘Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)’ platform, 101,561 Police officers had registered, and over 78,000 certificates had been issued.
The meeting was attended by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, members of the committee, the Union Home Secretary, and senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The committee discussed various issues related to ‘Cyber Security and Cyber Crime’ during the meeting.
The committee members gave their suggestions on issues related to ‘Cyber Security and Cyber Crime’ and appreciated the important steps taken by the government to enhance cyber security.
