Need to work out a roadmap for making India a leader in cyberspace domain: DRDO chairman

Academia, industry and government agencies need to join hands for working out a "roadmap" for making India a leading country in the field of cyberspace, a top defence official said Monday.

Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development and Chairman DRDO, G Satheesh Reddy, said this during a day-long conference on 'Cybersecurity - Challenges and Innovations', held here.

"The academia, industry and government agencies are all here as part of this conference. Cyberspace is becoming important day by day, most of the devices are connected to the network. And, even areas like artificial intelligence, big data analytics are very important and getting connected to it," he said.

The conference was organised by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in partnership with Cyber Peace Foundation and Mumbai-based Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI).

"We need to work together, and work out a roadmap on how to make the country a leading country in the cyberspace area... I also very strongly feel that start-ups will play an important role in that," Reddy said.

Former DRDO chief and Chief Scientific Advisor to Minister of Defence and current Member of Niti Aayog, V K Saraswat, in his address, emphasised how one can convert a challenge into an opportunity through innovation.

"Cyberspace is becoming more complex and we need continuous innovation to keep the space secure and resilient to threats. Indigenous solutions, in-house expertise and start-up eco-system needs to be created to reduce dependence on foreign products and solutions for securing our critical infrastructure and defence installations," he said.

National Cyber Security Coordinator, Gulshan Rai stressed upon the areas of strategic importance including artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality and augmented reality, Internet of things (IOT), which would be the driving forces in a tech-driven future.

The conference focused on the current trends, future requirements of innovation in the field of cybersecurity.

The event also brought various stakeholders working in the area to showcase their innovations, current challenges and future aspects.

More than 100 academia and 70 start-ups participated in the conference. On this occasion, many start-ups showcased various indigenous innovations in cybersecurity, organisers said.