PM demands solutions against cyber threats from IT sector

Lauding the achievements of Indian IT industry for the past 25 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted the sector to bring out ideas and solutions that will tackle cyber security, enhance mobile governance and help in the 'Make in India' campaign with design thinking.

Interacting with IT industry players at a Nasscom event, Modi said, “The whole world is concerned with cyber threats. Since I became the Prime Minister, I have met around 50 world and political leaders and out of that, almost 25-30 have expressed cyber security as a concern. Can Indian youth work on solutions for cyber security?”

Stating that cyber security will be a “very big market”, Modi suggested that Nasscom should form a task force to see how this opportunity can be leveraged as Indian IT professionals can do a lot for cyber safety of digital assets across the world.

Tech-savvy Modi, who harps on mobile governance and taps into social media for interfacing with citizens, said the Indian IT industry should start working on creating ‘Cloud Godowns’ and ‘Cloud Lockers’ which can be hired or used by banks and others to safely keep data without the fear of it being compromised.

The Prime Minister said that there was immense potential for the Indian IT sector to innovate and provide mobile applications to deliver citizen-centric services and mobile governance.

Speaking of the Digital India initiative, Modi said that e-governance also implies easy governance, and economical governance. The government, he said, is building IT infrastructure, and would adopt innovations. “Like Highways, i-ways are also essential for growth.”

He also said that ideas from the public will be invited for developing a mobile app for his office (PMO) to make it mobile-friendly for citizens.

Modi said that the IT sector can boost tourism in India by making virtual museums that showcase the country’s heritage. He called upon industry leaders to contribute towards creating e-libraries for schools.

Modi said that while connectivity will be a major source for increasing GDP, it is disconcerting that the country has not been able to produce a ‘Google’ from India.

Talking to Deccan Herald from New Delhi, Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds Technologies Ashok Soota said that the Prime Minister appreciated the $146 billion Indian IT sector which changed the way the world looks at the country.

“Focusing on his Digital India campaign, he spoke on the mobile-centric world where it plays a bigger role in payments, education and healthcare,” he said.

Soota also said that as part of the Make in India campaign, the Prime Minister also wanted IT companies to help build design-led manufacturing. “He wants India to be in the high-value manufacturing arena where commodity manufacturing should take a backseat,” Soota said.