Day: July 26, 2021

Cyber fraud? Here's your help!

The Ministry of Home Affairs has operationalised the national Helpline 155260 and Reporting Platform for preventing financial loss due to cyber fraud. The helpline was soft-launched on 1st April.

The National Helpline and Reporting Platform provides a mechanism for persons cheated in cyber frauds to report such cases to prevent loss of their hard earned money.

Also, a National Cyber Security Strategy 2020 is being formulated by the Office of National Cyber Security Coordinator at the National Security Council Secretariat.

What is Cyber security?

  • Cyber Security is protecting cyber space including critical information infrastructure from attack, damage, misuse and economic espionage.
  • Critical Information Infrastructure: According to Section 70(1) of the Information Technology Act, CII is defined as a “computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety”.
  • Cyber Fraud: It is the crime committed via a computer with the intent to corrupt another individual’s personal and financial information stored online. It is the most common type of fraud and individuals and organisations need to be vigilant and protect their information from fraudsters.

How does this help?

  • The helpline has been made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), in coordination with the Reserve Bank of India, all major banks, payment banks, wallets and online merchants.
  • The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been developed by I4C to integrate Law Enforcement Agencies and Banks and Financial Intermediaries.
  • The facility empowers both the banks and the police, by leveraging new-age technologies for sharing online fraud related information and taking action in almost real time.
  • Since its soft launch, in a short span of two months, the helpline has assisted in saving more than Rs 1.85 crore.

What is I4C?

  • I4C is Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre
  • The scheme to set up I4C was approved in October 2018, to deal with all types of cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
  • It has seven components:
    • National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit
    • National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
    • National Cyber Crime Training Centre
    • Cyber Crime Ecosystem Management Unit
    • National Cyber Crime Research and Innovation Centre
    • National Cyber Crime Forensic Laboratory Ecosystem
    • Platform for Joint Cyber Crime Investigation Team.
  • 15 States and Union Territories have given their consent to set up Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centres.
  • This state-of-the-art Centre is located in New Delhi.

What are other initiatives to tackle Cyber Crime?

  • Draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (based on the recommendation of Justice BN Srikrishna Committee) to secure citizens data.
  • Cyber Swachhta Kendra: The “Cyber Swachhta Kendra” (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) is a part of the Government of India’s Digital India initiative under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
  • Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN): It is an organisation of the MeitY, with the objective of securing Indian cyberspace. It is the nodal agency which deals with cybersecurity threats like hacking and phishing.

Conclusion

Data is the new gold, it is very important that we protect our data from cyber fraudsters and cyber criminals. We have to stay aware and stay safe! But if we realise a data breach / cyber fraud / cyber crime, we have to report it immediately !

Remember ” A stitch in time saves nine! “

Tribals demand power supply in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Tribals in villages under non-scheduled areas of Ravikamatam and koyyuru mandala in Visakhapatnam district on Friday protested, demanding power connection to their Hamlet’s.

President of the Primitive Tribals Group, koyyuru mandal, korra Mahesh said people living in Hamlet’s under Chimalapadu panchayat under Ravikamatam have been demanding for power connections for the past three years.  

Tribals demand power supply in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Tribals in villages under non-scheduled areas of Ravikamatam and koyyuru mandala in Visakhapatnam district on Friday protested, demanding power connection to their Hamlet’s.

President of the Primitive Tribals Group, koyyuru mandal, korra Mahesh said people living in Hamlet’s under Chimalapadu panchayat under Ravikamatam have been demanding for power connections for the past three years.  

rapid growing industry

BY: NEHA SHAHAB 
The concept of e-commerce first formally came forth in 1991, a time when internet practically did not even exist in India. Even worldwide, very few could fathom that the act of buying and selling goods and services over the internet, would be as widely accepted a practice, as it is today. By the late ’90s, people became aware of this thing called the internet, but for a majority of them, it remained a luxury they did not particularly need. In a truly Indian manner, it was only in 2002, when the IRCTC introduced an online reservation system, that the public widely accepted the internet as something fruitful, by which time a company named Amazon, was already beginning to create a few murmurs in the US.
Many people are also unaware that Rediff had been trying to capture the Indian market since the year 1999 and that IRCTC was the first company to create a successful portal.
Investments/ Developments
Some of the major developments in the Indian e-commerce sector are as follows:
In May 2021, Amazon introduced a video streaming service within its shopping app called MiniTV for users in India. MiniTV features web series, comedy shows and content on tech news, food, beauty and fashion.
In May 2021, Flipkart strengthened its grocery infrastructure to cater to customer safety and demand across India. In this quarter, it is planning to further expand its fulfilment centre capacity for grocery by over 8 lakh square feet across Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Coimbatore and Hyderabad.
In May 2021, Flipkart announced that it is in talks with sovereign funds, private equity majors and other investors to raise up to US$ 2 billion at a valuation of US$ 30 billion.
In April 2021, Flipkart announced a commercial alliance with Adani Group to improve the company’s logistics and data centre capabilities and create about 2,500 direct jobs.
In April 2021, Flipkart announced to acquire Cleartrip, an online travel technology firm. Flipkart announced to purchase 100% shareholding of Cleartrip as the company expands its investments to broaden its digital commerce offerings for customers.
In April 2021, Kirana commerce platform ElasticRun raised US$ 75 million in a round led by existing investors—Avataar Venture Partners and Prosus Ventures.
In March 2021, Amazon acquired Bengaluru-based retail tech start-up Perpule for Rs. 107.6 crore (US$ 14.5 million).
In March 2021, Purplle, an online beauty store, raised US$ 45 million from Sequoia Capital India, Verlinvest, Blume Ventures and JSW Ventures.
In March 2021, Captain Fresh, a B2B marketplace for seafood, raised US$ 3 million in seed capital led by Matrix Partners India and Ankur Capital.
In March 2021, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents 80 million traders and 40,000 trader associations, announced the launch of a mobile app for its e-commerce portal, ‘Bharat E-market’. The association aims to get more small traders to sell online easily through smartphones.
In February 2021, Flipkart partnered with Maharashtra State Khadi & Village Industries Board and Maharashtra Small Scale Industries Development Corporation to bring local artisans and small and medium businesses into the e-commerce ecosystem.
In February 2021, Zomato entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to introduce 300 street food vendors on its portal.
In February 2021, Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B marketplace of Flipkart Group will offer grocery on its app with an aim to provide kiranas and small retailers one-stop access to a wide selection of products.
In February 2021, Udaan, a B2B e-commerce firm, announced to expand its warehouse capacity (by 5x) to 50 million sq. ft. across several states in the next 7-8 years.
In January 2021, Flipkart introduced SuperCoin Pay to strengthen its SuperCoin rewards programme by allowing customers to pay through SuperCoins at >5,000 retail outlets across the country.
In January 2021, The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) unveiled eKhadiIndia.com, an e-commerce portal, which will comprise >50,000 products, ranging from apparel to home décor.
In January 2021, the B2B e-commerce platform, Udaan raised US$ 280 million (Rs. 2,048 crore) in additional financing from new investors—Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital. Prior to this, in October 2019, the company raised US$ 585 million (Rs. 4,280 crore) from Tencent, Altimeter, Footpath Ventures, Hillhouse, GGV Capital and Citi Ventures. It is likely to deploy the latest fund towards continued market creation of B2B e-commerce in India and digitise more small businesses across the country.