Cyber security, Net speed need enhancement
With digital transactions becoming the new flavour of the season post-demonetisation, the findings of the 2016 Akamai State of the Internet — Connectivity Report , should make our policymakers sit up and urgently take steps to enhance Net connectivity across the country, both in terms of reach and efficiency. Without such an expansion and improvement in Internet speeds, it will not be long before users seek to abandon their quest for digital payment modes and switch to heavy cash transactions. According to the Akamai report, India lags far behind many nations in Net download speed — behind even Nepal, Bangladesh and Iraq. India is ranked in the 105th place globally in average bandwidth availability and 96th in terms of download speed. This is indeed abysmal. Contrary to general impression, the woes are not limited to rural India — where the situation is even more, given not just low speeds and lack of Internet coverage but also regular power outages that make it difficult for mobile users to put their smartphones to optimum use for digital transactions. The problems are acute in urban areas too, including the metros. In fact, because of the larger user base in larger cities, the Net service is often adversely impacted. Commercial establishments like banks have been suffering from this malady for long. And today the last establishment that can afford to grapple with these issues is a bank. Core banking software needs to be upgraded. Experts have long been saying that such software is so heavily loaded with avoidable content that it poses problems for both the banking sector and the consumer. To top it all, according to a senior Government official, nearly 5,000 bank correspondents have no Net access. This is problematic because bank correspondents are the life-line in rural areas, and in many regions there still are no regular bank branches. In the post-demonetisation situation, bank correspondents have been playing a major role in getting fresh accounts opened for customers who were out of the banking system, and helping them out in deposit and withdrawal-related issues.
Then there is the equally grave issue of cyber security. It's true that even the most developed countries and secure and sensitive websites have been victims of cyber attacks — what we commonly refer to as hacking. But that is no reason for establishments in India to be less than concerned. The Government has no doubt been taking steps to enhance cyber security, but more needs to be done — and fast. If the system wants more and more people to join the digital payment bandwagon, it will have to at the very least assure them that their sensitive data is not compromised; and if it does get impacted, action against the guilty will forthcoming in double quick time. There have been very few convictions in cases of cyber crime. The Government must actively consider a review of cyber crime laws and ensure that the laws are stringently applied.