Budget 2018: In minutes from now, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the much-anticipated
Budget 2018 in parliament today where his briefcase is expected to address a number of concerns for industries, including those that are Internet-based and firms that saw a recent boom in the country. The government’s Digital India programme will be under the spotlight as Budget 2018 will decide the track of digitisation in the country for the next financial year. The digitised sector of India saw a staggering hike in the cashless payments last year when the government announced multiple initiatives under the Digital India programme. The impetus of the digitisation process swept a large number of digital and paperless transactions, fintech startups, and data analytics companies in India. However, while corporate India is marching towards the ultimate goals of Digital India, it has simultaneously raised new Internet risks, which are centred around managing data, and its protection from the vulnerabilities that have amassed over the recent years.
According to a study by global professional services firm EY, about 70 percent of Indian respondents agree to an urgent need for data protection and data privacy compliance. The Internet sphere of India tacks its hopes for a better data privacy and security framework in India during the Budget 2018. While the Internet paradigm in India has come so far that the cashless payments, data centres, and cloud services are booming among the industries, the concern for their security has emerged as a major issue. In the wake of recent cyber-attacks and ransomware attacks, the Internet-run industry of India has been hopeful that the government would turn its attention towards this inevitable situation.
The country is pacing towards a future where Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotic process automation, and advanced data analytics have manifested themselves as the most adopted and demanded possibilities. “Indian organisations are geared up to adopt emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (63 percent), Robotics Process Automation (53 percent), Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers (50 percent), and User Behavioural Analytics (66 percent) this year,” said the EY study. Budget 2018 will need to address these issues so that the government’s ambitious ‘Digital India’ programme does not lose its momentum.
While the pace of digitisation in India has been steady, there are additional risks involved in the run. According to EY’s Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey 2018, 46 percent Indian respondents have shown concern about cyber breach and insider threats that are capable of cannibalising customer’s data, as well as, Internet businesses. As a solution to the concerns on data protection in India, the role of Forensic Data Analytics (FDA) will be pivotal in mitigating the escalating cyber threats, the study points out. As per the EY study, the India findings revealed that 71 percent of the respondents had effectively utilised FDA in cases of data protection and privacy and 87 percent for financial statement fraud against the global average of 73 percent and 77 percent, respectively. It will be interesting to see what FM Jaitley will uncover to address this elephant in the room.
“Emerging markets, especially India, are driving the digital data revolution through rapid innovation and adoption of new technologies. However, the current business environment demands reassessing the risk landscape as a result of new regulations around data protection and data privacy, increased multi-jurisdictional co-operation and rising digital vulnerabilities,” said Arpinder Singh, Partner and Head – India & Emerging Markets, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services, EY. “These would assist companies in continuous monitoring, policy adherence, and bolster business transparency. These tools can offer companies the flexibility to create customised risk programmes in line with their unique risk profile and culture,” he added.
The government’s ambitious Aadhaar programme has fallen under the scanner too, mainly due to the privacy reasons. UIDAI’s Aadhaar programme was decried by many Indian citizens when some recent reports pointed that hacking Aadhaar data is plainly duck soup. The government has constantly been denying these reports and affirmed its stand where it says that Aadhaar is fully unbreachable and secured. However, despite what government might say and believe, Indian banks and businesses that use Aadhaar-related verifications methods seem wanting in sound policies and frameworks to protect the Aadhaar data of billions of Indians. The Budget 2018 is expected to hold a special corner where FM Jaitley will address what shape Digital India will take in the next financial year.
Source: financialexpress.com