Tejas Bharadwaj
A robust cyber foundation allows a country to ensure the safety, accessibility, and equitability of its cyberspace for its citizens, the responsibility of which falls under its cybersecurity administration.[1] With 971 million internet subscribers, India’s digital landscape is growing rapidly. In 2022–23, India’s digital economy was valued at 11.74 percent of its national income, contributing $402 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP), and is projected to make up a fifth of the GDP by 2030. India also recorded the highest volume of digital payment transactions of 18.3 billion in March 2025. Advancements in AI have contributed to a significant rise in internet-connected smart devices and appliances in the last five years, further increasing India’s digital surface.
A driver of social and economic progress, Indians use cyberspace to exercise their fundamental rights and access public welfare services, placing onus on the government to protect it from attacks and ensure its access. India’s cyberspace is the second most targeted in the world, and is increasingly facing ransomware, phishing, and supply chain attacks, alongside data breaches and AI-powered attacks. Between 2019 and 2023, cyber attacks on the Indian government increased by 138 percent. The Reserve Bank of India reported that data breaches cost India $2.18 million in 2023, a 28 percent increase in three years.
In 2024, India secured Tier 1 status in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Index. The Index termed legal, technical, capacity development, and cooperation measures as its areas of relative strength. It also noted India’s organizational measures as an area for potential growth, placing an onus on India’s cybersecurity administration to handle cyber threats around the clock due to its’s growing digital surface and evolving cyber threat matrices.
India’s cybersecurity administration comprises agencies and departments across ministries that work together to safeguard India’s cyberspace. These include the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Defence Cyber Agency (DCyA) under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), through its Cyber Diplomacy Division (CDD), also facilitates international partnerships and navigates multilateral cyber engagements. With multiple actors involved, India’s cybersecurity administration structure lacked clarity over which agency would deal with which aspect of cybersecurity.
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