‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subject as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India and the efforts of the States to equip and modernize their police forces are being assisted under the scheme of “Assistance to State & UTs for Modernization of Police” (ASUMP) [erstwhile scheme of Modernization of State Police Forces (MPF)]. The objective of the scheme is to equip the State/UT police forces adequately through development of relevant infrastructure. The focus of the scheme is to strengthen police infrastructure at cutting edge level by equipping with latest technology, weaponry, communication equipment etc. along with construction of police infrastructure such as police stations. Under the ASUMP scheme, the States/UTs may have a theme of one component (i.e. equipment for ‘cyber policing’, communication equipment, advanced weaponry, etc.) for modernization in each year, so that after completion of that component, inference can be drawn that the State/UT has achieved the minimum required standards.

The ASUMP guidelines prescribe that 10% of size of the Action Plan of a State/UT shall be mandatorily planned for development of capacity building of police personnel and improvement in Police-Public Interface. This may include imparting training on yoga, meditation, psychological counseling in stress management, community service.

The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform, namely ‘CyTrain’ portal has been developed for capacity building of police officers/judicial officers through online course on critical aspects of cyber crime investigation, forensics, prosecution etc. More than 1,02,321 Police Officers from States/UTs are registered and more than 79,909 Certificates issued through the portal.

 

Financial assistance under the ‘Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)’ Scheme has been provided to the States/UTs for their capacity building such as setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring of junior cyber consultants and training of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs’) personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers. Cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 33 States/UTs and more than 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.

 

To address emerging cyber threats, weekly online peer-learning sessions are conducted every Friday for law enforcement agencies and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), focusing on cybercrime trends, investigative techniques, and countermeasures. So far, 98 peer-learning sessions have been conducted.

 

Reports by general public regarding Cybercrime including cybercrimes against women and children are made on National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) launched in 2019, and after conversion into FIR, subsequent action is taken by the State Governments as per provision of law. Financial assistance has been given to State Governments for strengthening 1930 call centers to provide assistance to citizens in lodging online Cyber complaints.

 

7 Joint Cybercrime Coordination Teams (JCCTs) have been constituted for hotspots based upon Cybercrime incidences for enhancing coordination with State Governments. Samanvaya Portal is a joint Cybercrime Investigation Facilitation Platform for sharing of cybercrime data and analytics. It also provides map location of criminals and crime infrastructure on a map to give visibility to jurisdictional officers.

 

The National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation) set up in Delhi provides early stage cyber forensic assistance to investigating officers of States/UTs. Cyber Commando Wing has been created to recruit Cyber Commandos from States/UTs etc. Residential Training has been imparted to more than 3,785 LEAs’ personnel, Judicial officers, Public Prosecutors & Forensics Scientists.

 

SMART word as an acronym with particular reference to policing was coined by the Hon’ble Prime Minister in 2014 during the DGsP/IGsP conference. To meet the emerging challenges and to deliver effective and timely responses, the police in India have adopted the concept of SMART Policing. It encompasses the entire range of policing activities e.g cybercrime prevention, drug de-addiction, capacity building with latest equipment, countermeasures against left wing extremist and protection of vulnerable sections of society.

 

During the last year, the Outlying Unit of Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D) conducted 323 courses/webinars/conferences/ workshops on relevant topics such as cybercrime, dark web and crypto currency, mobile forensics, collection and preservation of digital evidence, bank frauds, plastic cards and fintech crimes in current age, blockchain technology etc., in which 26,591 officers have been trained.

 

G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the age of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), AI and Metaverse was organized by MHA on 13-14 July 2023 at Gurugram in collaboration with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Department of Telecommunication (DoT). The deliberations in the conference would result in more coordination and international cooperation to tackle the threats of cyber security and cybercrime, development of shared cyber standards and support for enhancing the skill to fight cyber threats. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with US Department of Homeland Security for Cooperation and Training in using Digital Forensics and Cyber Threat Intelligence in Criminal Investigations. Cyber Dialogue has been initiated with countries viz. France, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, USA, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Canada and Egypt. The Ministry conducted Joint Training Session on Investigation technique to combat cybercrimes in collaboration with Embassy of France at New Delhi. Joint Seminar of Cyber Investigation on Cryptocurrency with experts from France was conducted in December 2024.

This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

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