GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

RAJYA SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1997

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 02.12.2016

OPERATIONALISATION OF NCCC

1997. SHRI RJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR:

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state:-

(a)Whether the National Cyber Security Coordination Centre (NCCC) cleared by Government in March 2015 to respond to cyber attacks, has been made operational;

(b) If so, the details there of and if not, the reasons therefor;

(c)Whether the country has a shortage of professionals capable of dealing with network architecture encryption and cryptography; and

(d) If so, the steps taken by Government to bridge this gap?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY)

(a) and (c): Government has approved the project to set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) in April 2015 for implementation by Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) with an outlay of  Rs 985 crores for a period of five years. The main focus of the Centre is to continuously scan the cyberspace in the country at metadata level and generate near real time situational awareness for macroscopic views of the cyber security threats in the country. NCCC is a multi stakeholder body with phases of implementation. The first phase for creation of Threat and Situational Awareness Test bed is under implementation.

(c) and (d): Cyber Security is an evolving area and every day new technologies are being introduced in this domain and ever increasing demand for human resources in the area. To address the requirement of trained professionals in the area, Government has taken several initiatives.

Cyber Security R & D is one of the key components of creating cyber security eco-system in the country. It is aimed at development / enhancement of skills and expertise in areas of cyber security by facilitating basic research, technology demonstration and proof-of-concept and R&D test bed projects. Research and development is carried out in the thrust areas of cyber security including cryptography and cryptanalysis, Network & System Security, etc. through sponsored project at recognized R&D organisations. Currently 32 projects are being pursued to cater to a variety of requirements of Government, Law Enforcement and security agencies, specifically addressing the need of availability as well as development of trustworthy products and solutions.

A project on capacity building in the area of cryptology has been initiated with a budget of Rs 115 crores at R C Bose Centre for Cryptology and Information Security, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata. The Centre has commenced conducting of short-term courses on cryptology.

Government is also implementing ‘Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA)’ project to train professional / government officials and create mass information security awareness among citizens. The project is implemented by 51 institution across the country. So far, 11,110 persons have been trained/undergoing training in various formal/non-formal courses focusing on cyber security.

*******