Budget 2018: Govt funds for cybersecurity on the decline over past 3 years

Allocation for cybersecurity in 2015-16 decreased to Rs 1.05 billion at BE stage and further to Rs 850 million at RE stage; actual expenditure was Rs 682 million

Although cybersecurity is supposedly a government priority, due to digitisation of services across sectors, financial allocation for this has been reducing over the past three years. And, allocated funds are not being utilised fully.

The government programme caters to operational expenditure of critical statutory organisations such as the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and others. During 2014-15, allocation for cyber security, which includes funds for CERT-In and the Information Technology Act, stood at Rs 1.2 billion at Budget Estimate (BE) stage. Reduced to Rs 620 million at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage;