Prime Minster has already established Industrial Revolution 4.0 centres. NITI Ayog is doing so well in term of blockchain and Indiachain. Incubating Al initiatives and we have come out with IoT policies and drone policies all these means a lot of data and data needs firewalls and we don’t want back door and we want air gaps set ups. India has done some work and need a lot more to do.
Where India stands in the field of e-Governance in comparison to the developed countries?
India has gone through a long journey in e-govemance. It was way back in 2009 that we could start seeing the impact of the previous programs and the new programs were also getting pace. NEGP had controlled its outreach. It was only after 2014 onwards when digital India program was launched, we could substantially feel India is making a head way. Let us look at the index, which is known as EGDI (e-govemance development index), which is an UNDP index. If you look at this index in 2010 we were somewhere like 119th ranks out of 193 countries. At present in 2018, we are at 96th rank out of 193 countries. This remarkable change is itself a very good parameter. This I have feel has happened because of several Initiatives taken by Government of India including Digital India program. This rank change was also because of the strengthening of IT regulatory framework of the country in terms of cyber security 2013, e-mail policy 2014, and now justice Shri BM Srikrishna Committee report data protection and privacy concerns policies. India is at very maturing phase of e-govemance. Very soon the country will outpace the developed country.
What are the steps taken by Indian government for cyber security?
This is one field where we are just maturing. There is global cyber security index, where India stands 23rd out of 77 countries. Cyber security policy 2013 was introduced in 2013. Fortunately the policy launched gave an edge to the country. Unfortunately much has not been done in the legislative for making a cyber security act. I would also applaud our institutes and our government for strengthening it through various institutes. There are several cyber security agencies such as STQC, NCIIPC (national critical information infrastructure committee), & prevision of awareness program. We have information security and education and awareness set up in the country. There are several think tank websites, which gives us awareness about cyber security initiative India is involved in. We have IDSC, which gives us awareness about cyber security. Defense intelligence agency, which is supporting DIA. We also have many other agencies, which are working very well in securing information. India has done substantially well with regard to institutional set up. I give special kudos to cyber security coordinator and adviser to PMO as he provides right kind of coordination between METI and Ministry of Home affairs for both internal defense and external defense. India is on the right track but I would again affirm India now needs a cyber security act now because the way the emerging technologies are coming. The cyber security policy was implemented in 2013 and now 2019, if 5 years down the line we need to have an act. Prime Minster has already established Industrial Revolution 4.0 centres. NITI Ayog is doing so well in term of blockchain and Indiachain. Incubating Al initiatives and we have come out with IoT policies and drone policies all these means a lot of data and data needs firewalls and we don’t want back door and we want air gaps set ups. India has done some work and need a lot more to do.
How artificial intelligence and automation can help strengthen the cyber security system of the nation?
This is a very interesting thing. I can think technology can be a master and worker at the same time. When we say how use technology like artificial intelligence can be used to capture those vulnerable points and create the data base of vulnerability of any organization and crawls through it and find/predict using big data and other mechanism the possibility of hacks etc can be analyzed.
Technologies can do anything for us especially frontier technologies. The human component cannot be undermined in such cases. All these should take place with some human intervention. Human intervention can take place either at conception level or at implementation or design level. At all these levels, we should have very strong, sensitized, aware, updated people. So, on one side we need to have very strong and flexible regulatory framework and on the other side the resources should also be upgraded. On this front of human resource up gradation Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) is doing a tremendous job.
It is an institute, which is putting lots of efforts for capacity building, sensitization and awareness especially in area of e-govemance & cyber security. We have done lot of work on e-govemance and cyber security through Bharat initiative. We have undertaken lot of training of trainer program. Empowerment, capacity building, hand holding, awareness and sensitization all are taken care of.
How many capacity building initiatives were taken by you in the field of e-governance and ICT?
Hundreds of capacity building initiatives were taken by us in the field of e-govemance. Dining my tenure of 30 years of professional life, I have undertaken one training program per month. The first assignment I took was building capacities of senior government official, which is a flagship program. Till date on an average, we take one-training per month. Thirty years career multiplied by 12 months in year can show a remarkable number. The credit goes to my family for supporting me and to my institute for motivating me. There has been no stopping. In this institute, we work 24X7 for e-govemance.
How many specialized training program did you conduct?
The kind of training we are doing let’s categorize them. Let’s not count the numbers. Let’s categorize them at various levels. There is one kind of training, which we do for operational people like hard core Java, cloud, sequel server, Oracle etc. These are hard core training components where we give certification to the trainee. This is essentially for the work force who all the soldiers of IT Industry. Second category where the project leaders are trained, which is a bit of first category, here we do lot of training programs on how to handle project life cycle, SDLC and on software engineering concept and emerging technologies. Then come a little up, this is more of a decisionmaking category. Where we do MDP for them, we do foundation for them; there we focus lesser on netegrities of the technologies but more on the total global scenario. It is more of awareness and sensitization program. It is yet about some technical levels. The final level is leaders program, which is a day workshop. In such programs, we provide training from ground zero to the zenith.
What are your advice’s to the youth of the nation?
My advice to the youth of the nation, who are master of the show in present scenario. My perception is that the youth should keep learning and unlearning. The pace at which technologies are growing, very soon whatever we have learned last year becomes a baggage today. We should throw out the old tech and keep adopting the new one. We should be willing to displace our comfort zone.
So self upgradation without attachment to what the student has learned last year or last month and moving with the new tech is very important. Keep your foot flexible. Technologies cannot be taken as replacement of Human force. Very soon Al and robotics will encroach human territory. So take technology adaption with a pinch of salt.
What motivates you to do exemplary work?
I very humbly thank you for quoting my work as exemplary, I personally don’t find. My work and my family motivate me to work extra mile.
I love my work so much that I even don’t feel that I work. I eat e-govemance, I feel e-govemance and I sleep e-govemance. I am very thankful to the ecosystem I am bom in. Last but not the least I belong to such a beautiful institute. Everybody here in IIPAhas chiseled me and nurtured me to work. They gave me appropriate environment and space. When I arrived in IIPA there were only two computers and I want to do so much and they permitted to do all the work I wanted and with passage of time they gave me the infrastructure required to work.
Can you explain about one of your research works, which is closest to your heart?
Wow! What is closest to my heart is India. I have been very fortunate. From 2004 onwards till 2010, I was asked to go to rural area. Have worked with people there and have come to know that technology should be uniting not dividing. Through e-govemance and adaption of new technologies we can unite both urban and rural India. Technologies should be unifier not divider.
