Lok Sabha Question No. 2211 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-15
Subject: Digital Literacy
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: DODDAALAHALLI KEMPEGOWDA SURESH, NALIN KUMAR KATEEL, B.N. CHANDRAPPA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (MeitY)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2211

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 15.03.2017

## DIGITAL LITERACY

## 2211.     SHRI D.K.SURESH:     SHRI NALIN KUMAR KATEEL:       SHRI B.N.CHANDRAPPA:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

- (a) whether there is a growing concern among people to use online transactions, electronic payment and other internet based communications due to digital illiteracy;
- (b) if so, the steps being taken by the Government to promote digital literacy;
- (c) the details of cyber crimes reported during the last three years in the country and the present status of the said crimes;
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  steps  to  tackle  cyber  crime  incidents  with  stringent  cyber  laws  to regulate transactions on the net; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P.P.CHAUDHARY)

- (a)  and  (b): The  Government,  to  address  various  concerns  of  people  regarding  online  transactions,  electronic payment and other internet based communications, has taken up the following steps:
-  'Digital Finance for Rural India: Creating Awareness and Access through Common Service Centres(CSCs)' under  the  Digital  Saksharta  Abhiyan  (DISHA)  has  been  initiated  in  November  2016  for  conducting  awareness sessions  on  digital  finance  options  available  for  rural  citizens  as  well  as  enabling  various  mechanisms  of  digital financial  services  such  as  Unstructured  Supplementary  Service  Data(USSD),  Unified  Payment  Interface  (UPI), Cards/Point  of  Sales(PoS),  Aadhaar  Enabled  Payment  System(AEPS),  eWallet  etc.  As  on  10.03.2017,  around  2 crore  beneficiaries  and  around  9.93  lakh  Merchants  have  been  trained/enabled  under  this  programme.  Further, sensitization drives have been carried out at 650 Districts and 5,735 Blocks throughout the country.
-  In addition to this, following initiatives have been taken for creating awareness amongst citizens:
- -A 24-hour TV channel named 'DigiShala' and a website called 'www.cashlessindia.gov.in', dedicated for facilitating awareness to citizens on cashless payment options and their use, have been launched on 9th December, 2016.
- -DigiDhan Melas: The DigiDhan Mela brings together various stakeholders of digital payment systems such as banks, e-wallet operators, telecom providers and institutions like Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Common Services Centres(CSCs) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to promote digital payments. The objective is to enable citizens and merchants to undertake real time digital transactions and encourage them to use digital platforms for day to day transactions.
- -A  Two  day  awareness  camp  'DigiDhan  Mela'  was  organised  on  17 th -18th  December,  2016  at  Major Dhyanchand National Stadium, Delhi, to mark the start of the urban campaign to promote digital payments
- -Lucky Grahak Yojana/ Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana : The Government has launched the Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants. These schemes provide daily and weekly awards to citizens and merchants for undertaking digital transactions through Rupay cards, AEPS, UPI Apps and USSD. The objective is to incentivise citizens and merchants to adopt digital payment platforms. As on 10.03.2017, 11.72 lakh consumers and 65,000 merchants have been declared as winner under these schemes.
- -The DigiDhan Melas are being organised in 100 cities till 14th April, 2017. MeitY has launched a website www.digidhan.mygov.in which provides the latest updates on demonetisation and the consumer and merchants can

check the rewards under the LuckyGrahak and Digidhan Vypar  Yojana. As on 28.02.2017, more than 11.6 lakh citizens / merchants have participated in the DigiDhan Melas.

-  A  project  titled  'On-boarding  of  self-organised  small  and  medium  business/  traders  on  digital  payment initiatives'  has  been  approved for implementation by National Institute of Electronics and IT (NIELIT) covering small and medium size unorganized/self-organized business/traders.
-  The Government has recently approved a scheme titled 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)' to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 crore rural households by 31.03.2019. Under this  programme,  besides  digital  literacy,  the  citizens  would  also  be  provided  training  on  undertaking  cashless transactions through mobile phone.
-  Government has launched a new digital payment app named 'BHIM - Bharat Interface for Money'. This is a unified app for UPI through which the users can make simple, easy and quick payment transactions using Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

## (c), (d) and (e):

-  As per the data maintained by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a total of 5693, 9622 and 11592 cyber crime cases were registered during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.
-  As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total no. of 44679, 49455 and  39730  cyber security incidents were observed during  the year 2014, 2015 and 2016 (till  October)  respectively.  The  types  of  cyber  security  incidents  include  phishing,  scanning/probing,  website intrusions and defacements, virus/malicious code, Denial of Service attacks, etc. Over a period of time, the nature and pattern of incidents have become more sophisticated and complex.
-  Government has taken several  steps  to  tackle  the  cyber  crime  incidents  on  the  Internet.  The  details  are  at Annexure.

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## Steps taken by the Government to tackle the cyber crime incidents on the Internet

- (i) The IT Act, 2000 provides a comprehensive legal framework to address the issues connected with cyber crime, cyber attacks and security breaches of information technology infrastructure.
- (ii) Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has recently notified the scheme for evaluating any  Department,  body  or  agency  of  the  Central  Government  or  a  State  Government  to  notify  them  as Examiner of Electronic Evidence under section 79A of IT Act, 2000.
- (iii) Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats and countermeasures on regular basis.  CERT-In has issued 21 advisories since Nov 27, 2016 for security safeguards covering Point of Sale (POS), Micro ATMs, electronic Wallets, online banking, smart phones, unified payment interface, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), RuPay, SIM cards, wireless  access  points  /  routers,  mobile  banking,  cloud  and  Aadhaar  Enabled  Payment  System  (AEPS). Advisory  has  also  been  sent  by  CERT-In  to  RBI,  National  Payment  Corporation  of  India  (NPCI)  and Payment Card Industry Organizations covering precautions to be taken to avoid similar attacks as those that occurred recently with credit / debit cards.
- (iv) CERT-In  is  conducting  cyber  security  trainings  for  IT  /  cyber  security  professionals  including  Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of Government and critical sector organizations. 18 such training programs  were  conducted  covering  580  participants  during  the  year  2016.  In  addition  2  workshops  on security  of  digital  payments  systems  have  been  conducted  for  stakeholder  organisations  covering  110 participants.
- (v) Cyber Crime Cells have been set up in all States and Union Territories for reporting and investigation of Cyber Crime cases.
- (vi) With respect to the banking sector, in order to focus more attention on IT related matters, RBI has taken various action which includes;
-  RBI  has  set  up  a  Cyber  Security  and  IT  Examination  (CSITE)  cell  within  its  Department  of  Banking Supervision in 2015.
-  The  Bank  has  issued  a  comprehensive  circular  on  Cyber  Security  Framework  in  Banks  on  June  2,  2016 covering best practices pertaining to various aspects of cyber security.

## Annexure

-  RBI carries out IT Examination of banks separately from the regular financial examination of banks from last year. This examination  report has a special focus on cyber security. The reports have been issued to the banks for remedial action.
-  RBI  has  also  set  up  Cyber  Crisis  Management  Group  to  address  any  major  incidents  reported  including suggesting ways to respond and recover to/ from the incidents.
-  Department of Banking Supervision under RBI also conducts cyber security preparedness testing among banks on the basis of hypothetical scenarios with the help of CERT-In.
-  RBI also has set up an IT subsidiary, which would focus, among other things, on cyber security within RBI as well as in regulated entities.
-  RBI has issued circular on 09 th December 2016 on Security and Risk mitigation measure for all authorized entities / banks issuing Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) in the country.
-  In  addition,  RBI  issues  Circulars/advisories  to  all  Commercial  Banks  on  phishing  attacks  and  preventive  / detective measures to tackle phishing attacks.

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