I think India is late in the game by about 10 years, but at the same time the heart of the government is in the right place. What they’ve
done right is the appointment of Gulshan Rai as the cyber security coordinator. At least now there is a single point that you know you can go to with all of your questions and problems. To me, it was more of a vision statement. It’s a step in the right direction. The journey from a visionary cybersecurity policy to a tactical implementation to an actual change on ground is a long way. India’s cybersecurity budget is about a mere seven million US dollars, but that of NSA is billions of dollars, out of which the department of Homeland Security gets 658 million dollars, and the US CERT gets 93 million dollars. Also, India needs five lakh professionals in the next two years that is unlikely to be met due to lack of infrastructure and investment. How do you produce them in the country when none of the colleges actually have cyber security specialisations? That is not going to be easily achievable. You will need a pool of 25 lakh to pick five lakh.
| India is lagging behind in the cybersecurity game by 10 years”, says Amit Kumar, President Cyberfort India |
The country is lagging behind in its fight in cyberwarfare that has adopted innovative ways to attack governments and organisations causing huge financial losses. India has been ‘extremely late’ on framing the cyber security policy, which was launched by the government early this month. Cybersecurity policy is a great vision statement but I don’t think India has got a tactical plan. India does not have the environment. It is yet to be created. I would be pleasantly surprised if India meets the target (of creating workforce).
The National Cyber Security Policy aims at creating a work force of 5,00,000 professionals in the next five years and build cybersecurity training infrastructure through public-private participation.
As compared to the US, which is putting in a lot of resources to create cyber security professionals, India needs to involve academia like universities, impart training, set up labs and foster competition to deal with cyber security issues which is entirely missing in the country. India ranks ninth on Kaspersky’s list of countries with the highest percentage of computer attacks and many of the government websites are still exposed to threats as proper investment has not been made to find a long term solution. According to official data, more than 1,000 government websites were hacked in the last three years.
When a government website is got hacked they call professionals who fix the problem. But they have no budget to carry on. They have no budget to hire right people, to train them and defend their websites.
It is evident that the best way to solve the disease of cyberplague is by introducing a cybervaccine programme that is needed to start at all levels of society through combative education plans. China is estimated to have 25 million experts in cyber security while 1.25 lakh are from the local government.
The US has 91,080 experts in the government while India has just 556 experts. While data points show that we are losing the fight, it is clear that the solution to the plague will happen when we will inject the vaccine. It is evident that the best way to solve the cyber plague is by introducing a cyber-vaccine programme that is needed to start at all levels of society through combative education plans.
Jayashree Krishna, Founder Director 
Felicitated with the best ‘E- School Award’ by World Education Awards 2013 at the World Education Summit held at Le Meridian Hotel, New Delhi, Doon Public School is a co- educational, CBSE affiliated, Senior Secondary School celebrating 35 years of service to the nation. The school enjoys a unique distinction of being the first school in India to have computer-aided teaching and learning through Smart Class using plasma screen with Smart Assessment System (SAS) in all the classes. The school has received the ‘Best ICT Laboratory School Education Award 2010’ for being pioneer in the field of Digital Learning. The British Council Projects are also being undertaken by the school to vie for International School Award (ISA), which help the students to strengthen their skills and talents.
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was set up in 2009 with a mission to fulfill the growing need for skilled manpower across sectors in India. Dilip Chenoy, MD & CEO, NSDC, shares the journey so far and the future plans, in conversation with Chhavi Bakaria
development space.
Vasu K Saksena, CEO 
EducoSoft is a web platform designed, developed and managed by Educo International Inc, a company incorporated in the state of Georgia (USA) in 1985, with its subsidiaries in India, Puerto Rico, Philippines and Jamaica. During its first 15 years (1985-2000) development of the platform was supported by the US Department of Education and IBM Corporation through funded projects. In 2001 Educo started working on delivering its content and learning management system through the web. Since then the content and the system have undergone continuous improvement driven by user feedback, technology and education industry trend. Today it has emerged as one of the leading provider of comprehensive instructional and e-learning solutions in K-12 and post secondary education markets around the world. Educo is user driven without any marketing Infrastructure, and grows from user to user references. Its R&D, service, global web servers are in the US, with content production and system development in India. This type of management keeps the cost affordable with quality support.The mission of Educo is to custom design its platform for any user, country or Institutions, and makes them partners of change, with the support of large team of Educo Programmers and developers, local teachers and administrators.
Anil Goyal, Director (Strategy & Business Development)
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