-  A “Cyber Security Awareness Workshop” was successfully organized at Tent City-2, Ekta Nagar by CSIRT-Power (Computer Security Incident Response Team – Power), Ministry of Power, Government of India, in collaboration with Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL).

The workshop saw participation of over 200 representatives including officers from Central Government, state power utilities as well as private sector power utilities from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, and the Union Territories of Diu-Daman and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

Shri Amit Arora, IAS, Chief Administrator and CEO of Statue of Unity (SoU) and Shri Agneeshwar Vyas, IFS, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Kevadia graced the occasion as special guests. Distinguished dignitaries present included Shri L.K.S. Rathore, Director (Cyber Security), CSIRT-Power; Shri Shailesh Kumar Gupta, Executive Director, SECI; Shri Mahesh Mahendale, Executive Director, WRLDC; Shri T. Srinivas, CISO & Executive Director, Grid-India; and Shri D.H. Vasava, Executive Director, GSECL.

Shri Amit Arora, IAS, Chief Administrator and CEO of SoU welcomed the participants to Kevadia and urged them to take this opportunity to visit the beautiful attractions in the vicinity, He thanked CSIRT-Power, Ministry of Power and GSECL for organizing this workshop for power sector utilities of western region. He talked about the importance of advanced technologies as well as the increasing threat landscape.

Shri Agneeshwar Vyas, IFS, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Kevadia addressed the gathering highlighting the role of power sector in enabling other sectors. He stressed the increasing cyber threats and importance of cyber security for ensuring robust and reliable power sector.

Shri Somes Bandyopadhyay, Managing Director, GSECL, joined virtually and welcomed the participants at the wonderful location at the foothills of Sardar Patel’s Statue of Unity. He highlighted the criticality of cyber security in power sector and importance of awareness in the field, urging participants to utilize the workshop to enhance their knowledge in the field and implement the same at their utilities.

Shri L.K.S. Rathore informed that CSIRT-Power, operating under the Ministry of Power, is dedicated to cyber security in the power sector and is functioning with a strong 24x7 operational framework. He emphasized the need for power utilities to remain vigilant against cyber threats and adopt robust security policies. He also stated that the Ministry of Power has taken several measures for strengthening cyber security, with CSIRT-Power at the forefront. Extending special gratitude to Hon’ble Union Cabinet Minister of Power Shri Manohar Lal Khattar, Secretary (Power) Shri Pankaj Agarwal, Shri Ghanshyam Prasad, Chairperson, CEA and CISO-MoP Shri R.P. Pradhan for support in noble initiative of capacity building, he informed that this workshop is fifth in the series of regional workshops.

Shri D.H. Vasava stated that GSECL is a progressive organization of Gujarat, consistently taking proactive measures to mitigate emerging cyber security threats. He assured that the company is always prepared to tackle future challenges, especially cyber-attacks.

Shri T. Srinivas, Executive Director & CISO, Grid-India expressed his views on importance of secured grid operation and briefed about the efforts being undertaken by Grid-India to ensure the same.

Shri Mahesh Mehendale, Executive Director, WRLDC briefed about the efforts being taken in western region for ensuring seamless grid operation and stated that western region states are proactively  working for ensuring heightened cyber security posture.

Shri Shailesh Kumar Gupta, Executive Director, SECI thanked Ministry of Power for taking capacity building measures to ensure that power sector professionals are able to deal with any imminent threat on Indian Power Sector. He stressed the increasing Renewable Capacity being integrated to the grid and efforts being taken by SECI for cyber security.

Shri Chandrakant Pendore, AGM (IT), GUVNL, presented a detailed overview of GUVNL’s cyber security infrastructure, highlighting 24x7 monitoring, firewalls, anti-malware systems, and regular security updates to ensure data-center and application security.

During the workshop, participants were shown a short film on cyber security, given technical presentations by CSIRT-Power, CERT-In and NCIIPC, and engaged in quizzes & discussions on various topics related to cyber security for power sector.

The program was effectively managed by Shri Ashish Goel, AGM, CSIRT-Power, Shri Prateek Srivastava, Deputy Director, CSIRT-Power, Shri Vijay Dhodia, Senior Manager (IT), GSECL and Team Members from CSIRT-Power and GSECL.

The Workshop ended with a vote of thanks delivered by Shri Ashish Kumar Lohiya, Deputy Director, CSIRT-Power expressing gratitude to Ministry of Power and GSECL for organizing the workshop successfully.

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