[Answered] Highlight the government initiatives to protect the fast-growing digital economy. 

India has executed many citizen-friendly programs over the last 75 years. However, the Digital India Initiative has been a turning point for India. Today around 20 platforms run on this initiative which has made Indians to adapt technology in their lives. E.g. Bhim UPI has recorded over 6.28 billion transactions in July 2022.The digitization is expected to offer a $700 billion opportunity for India by 2030.

The following government initiatives are started to protect the digital ecosystem and combat cybercrime:

• Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS): CCTNS has now been integrated into all 16,447 police stations in the country. In 99. 9% of police stations, 100% of FIRs are registered immediately in the CCTNS.
• CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team): It is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur.
• Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS): to expedite justice by exchanging data across courts, police, prosecution, prisons, and forensic labs. The recent Phase II of ICJS is based on the principle of ‘one data, one entry’ and would be made available through a dedicated and secure cloud-based infrastructure with high-speed connectivity.
• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): Under this, seven platforms operate, such as a reporting portal, a cybercrime investigation task force etc. work in coordination with each other. So far, more than 20 lakh cybercrime complaints have been registered on the portal. Fifteen crore people have used this portal. A massive open online courses’ platform (MOOCs) called the ‘CyTrain’ portal has been developed under I4C.
• Fingerprint data system ‘NAFIS’: It has been launched with a storage capacity of 300 crore fingerprint data along with a ‘1930’ helpline. More than 250 banks and financial intermediaries are onboarded on this platform, which helps in real-time actions like blocking and lien marking of defrauded money.
• Safe City project: It aims to create a safe, secure, and empowering environment for women in public places and has been introduced in eight selected cities.
• Grant-in-aid of about Rs 100 crore has been provided to states/UTs to set up forensic-training laboratories for the cyberworld.

India’s digital vision talks about data sovereignty and giving domestic firms an advantage. With the right policy incentives, local firms could capture large shares of the digital payments market to become e-commerce players on a global scale.