Safety integral to effective use of internet: Ravi Shankar Prasad

He says, the govt is keen to work with the rest of the democratic world to build a high safety wall against cyber threats

Union Minister of Electronics and IT and Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said building a safe internet has to be the country’s top priority, towards which all stakeholders must work closely in the coming days.

“Internet available to the people of the world has to be safe. Safety is integral to the effective use of the internet. It is a virtual world but the problems of the virtual world affect the real world. Some people abuse this technology,” said Prasad, while addressing the 57th annual conference of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Hyderabad. “In India, we are suffering from terrorism and terrorists also use information and communications technology. Therefore, conscious working together by governments, ICANN, companies, et cetera is necessary to ensure that cyber security issues are effectively responded to.”

Expressing concerns over cyber attacks and other problem areas involving internet technology, Prasad stated that the central government was keen to work with the rest of the democratic world in building a high safety wall against such threats.

“Cyber attacks are a bloodless war. Let us accept the challenge,” he said.

The current government is pushing for a digital transformation in India, which has the second-largest internet user base in the world. The total number of internet users would be crossing 500 million by the middle of next year, by which time all the 0.25 million gram panchayats in the country would be provided with broad band connectivity, said Prasad. 

“We are promoting digital governance because Digital India means good governance. Digital India means transparent governance, digital delivery means direct delivery of subsidies to the deserved people, and we are extending the use of its applications in education, health, agriculture, among other things,” he added.