Centre to offer grants to bring newer cybersecurity solutions

The Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that to encourage the development of newer technologies in the field of cybersecurity, the Centre has decided to offer grants to startups. The grants will be up to Rs 5 crore and will only be spent on research and development.

“We are in the process of working with Data Security Council of India to conduct challenge grant for cybersecurity,” the Minister said, adding that India would invite cybersecurity scholars from the Asia Pacific region to do their research here. “We will offer scholars to do Ph.D. in any of the top 100 universities in India, including IITs,” he said at the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT) Conference.

India was invited to be a part of the steering committee of APCERT along with Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan to shape the agenda across the regions for the next two years.

He added that cybersecurity is an emerging trend and India's digital economy is on the highway of great growth. He also told that the government was in the process of setting up a center of excellence for blockchain technology. The Minister said, “The technology holds immense potential and we propose to use it in various areas, including banking, entertainment, e-governance, and land records.”