Lok Sabha Question No. 473 (STARRED), answered on 2023-04-05
Subject: Safety of Digital Transaction Platforms
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Nihal Chand Chauhan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *473

TO BE ANSWER ON:   05.04.2023

## SAFETY OF DIGITAL TRANSACTION PLATFORMS

## †*473:  SHRI NIHAL CHAND:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  significant  increase  is  being  seen  in  digital  payments  after  its  promotion  in  the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has conducted any comparative study of India with the rest of the world regarding digital transaction and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  taken  assured  steps  regarding  the  safety  of  the  digital transaction platforms operating in the country in a large number at present; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof ?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (e):  A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION NUMBER *473  FOR  05-04-2023  REGARDING  SAFETY  OF  DIGITAL  TRANSACTION PLATFORMS

........

(a) and  (b):  Yes,  Sir.  During  the  last  three  years,  digital  payment  transactions  have  registered tremendous growth in India. Easy and convenient Digital payment modes such as Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs), NETC  (National Electronic Toll Collection) have registered substantial growth and have transformed digital payment ecosystem by increasing Person to Person (P2P) as well as Person to Merchant (P2M) payments. At the same time existing payment modes such as Debit cards, Credit cards, NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer), RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement) have also grown at a fast pace. BHIM-UPI has emerged as the preferred payment mode of the citizens and has achieved a record of 753.48 crore digital payment transactions with the value of Rs 12.36 lakh crore in February 2023. The total number of digital payment transactions undertaken during the last three financial years and in the current financial year is as under:

| Financial year (FY)                 | Total number of digital transaction volume (in crore) #   | Total number of digital transaction value (in lakh crore)   |
|-------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| FY 2019-20                          | 4,572                                                     | 2,953                                                       |
| FY 2020-21                          | 5,554                                                     | 3,000                                                       |
| FY 2021-22                          | 8,840                                                     | 3,021                                                       |
| FY 2022-23 *(till 23 rd March 2023) | 12,735                                                    | 2,812                                                       |

# Note: Digital payment modes considered are BHIM-UPI, IMPS, NACH, AePS, NETC, Debit Cards, Credit Cards, NEFT, RTGS, PPI and others.

* Provisional data

Source: RBI, NPCI and banks

- (c):  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) undertook a follow on benchmarking exercise (for the year 2020) to measure India's standing vis-à-vis twenty other countries (including advanced economy countries, Asian economies and BRICS nations) spread across all the continents, as well as the progress since the last exercise (for the year 2017), across payment systems and payment instruments. The exercise sought to (a) arrive at an understanding of the preferences Indians  have  for  making  and  receiving  payments  and  how  these  preferences  compare  with other  countries,  (b)  assess  the  efficiency  of  India's  payment  systems,  and  (c)  measure  the progress in the parameters / indicators since the last exercise.The indicators considered in the exercise  included  various  digital  payment  modes  (Credit  transfers,  Direct  Debits,  Card Payments,  Fast  Payment  Systems,  Large  Value  Payment  Systems,  eMoney),  Utility  bill payment,  Mass  transit  payments,  alternate  forms  of  payments,  etc.  The  exercise  validated India's progress in Payments Ecosystem with India categorised as leader or strong in respect of 25 out of 40 indicators. The report can be accessed at the following linkhttps://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/PublicationReport/Pdfs/BIPS04062019CE3C72E9873244 ED8BAAE9C8FC5955A8.PDF
- (d): Yes, Sir.
- (e): Under the provisions of Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, RBI (Reserve Bank of India)  granted  authorization  to  NPCI  (National  Payments  Corporation  of  India)  to  operate various retail payment systems in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the regulations, directions and guidelines issued thereunder. Over the period NPCI has issued various operating guidelines, circulars and Standard Operating Procedures applicable for all eco-system

participants  with  respect  to  areas  pertaining  to  risk  management,  cyber  security,  frauds  and liability, features etc. to members. The Procedural Guidelines defines the roles and responsibilities, and PSPs (Payment System Providers) liabilities of all the participants, NPCI can impose penalty on the members for violating the said guidelines.

Further,  the  Government has also undertaken following steps to ensure safety  and security of various digital platforms:

- i. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers  and  networks  on  an  ongoing  basis.  CERT-In  has  issued  69  focused advisories  on  awareness  of  security  aspects  of  digital  payments,  from  November 2016 to December 2022, that aim at creating cyber security know-how by analyzing the threat vectors and suggesting best practices for the specific area in cyber security for organisations and users.
- ii. CERT-In has formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism for implementation by all Ministries/Departments of Central Government, State Governments/UTs and their organizations and critical sectors. Guideline documents and templates have been published to assist development and implementation of sectoral Crisis Management Plan.  The  Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) along with Reserve Bank of India is  enabling  implementation  of  CCMP  in  banks  by  means  of  cyber  security framework, minimum baselines resiliency requirements and best practices/guidelines.  To  enable  and  assess  cyber  security  posture  of  organizations and  effectiveness  of  CCMP  implementation,  Cyber  security  mock  drills/exercises are being conducted regularly by CERT-In in Government and financial sector.
- iii. Free  Tools  released  for  Citizens:  CERT-In  has  also  released  free  security  tools which can be used by citizens to detect threats on mobile and desktops. These are Bot  removal  tools,  USB  Pratirodh,  AppSamvid  and  M-Kavach  (available  at https://www.cert-in.org.in/ ).
- iv. CERT-In is operating incident response help desk wherein incidents like phishing websites which lures victims to divulge sensitive credential information are reported by users and organisations.  CERT-In is working  in  coordination with banks, RBI, Internet  Service  Providers,

Law  Enforcement  Agencies  and  international  CERTs  to  track  and  disable  such phishing websites.

- v. CERT-In is issuing advisories for users and organisations to create awareness about cyber frauds and threats and to secure digital payment systems.
- vi. CERT-In  is  providing  tailored  alerts  to  banks  and  financial  sector  organizations regarding  latest  cyber  threats  and  advising  countermeasures.  Victims  require  to report  cyber  crimes  and  cyber  fraud  cases  to  Law  Enforcement  agencies  for investigation.
- vii. In  addition  to  the  above,  the  role  played  by  CERT-In  is  to  provide  situational awareness and analysis of fraudulent activities to Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and Law Enforcement Agencies for investigation purposes.

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