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Karnataka has to wait a little more for its cybersecurity policy, as the government has decided to broaden its scope by touching upon the aspects dealt with by the e-governance and home departments as well.

The proposed policy will promote startups working on technologies to beef up cybersecurity and prevent financial frauds with the use of smartphones, IT/BT minister CN Ashwath Narayan told ET. "We hope to complete the exercise in about two-three months," he added.

The IT/BT department had, in line with its past announcements as well as a budget promise, prepared a draft with the help of the Centre of Excellence-Cybersecurity (CySec) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). When it came up before a recent Cabinet meeting for discussion, it was suggested that the IT/BT department include home and e-governance departments, too, in the exercise and get their inputs.

EV Ramana Reddy, additional chief secretary at the IT/BT department, told ET: “We have already had one round of meetings with the home and e-governance departments, and are meeting again soon. We hope to finalise the draft in the next couple of months."

The IT/BT department had worked for about a year and held many stakeholder consultations including meetings with Amazon, VMware and the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to produce the draft policy paper.

The IT/BT department in Karnataka always focussed on aspects such as creating an innovative ecosystem in cutting-edge technologies and emerging sectors, industry-academia partnerships, strengthening the startup ecosystem, capacity building and awareness campaigns.

The e-governance department has been dealing with citizen-facing government services including online transfer of various subsidies to beneficiaries, managing the backend processes like e-office and increasing the digitisation of governance. It is also tasked with securing the government's systems and processes.

The home department is handling aspects related to cybercrime and public awareness campaigns to prevent it.

Cybersecurity has acquired heightened importance from governments and corporates after the Covid-19 pandemic led to people taking to digital transactions extensively.

In April this year, an IBM delegation led by its South Asia managing director, Sandeep Patil, met minister Ashwath Narayan offering to share knowledge with the state government in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The US technology giant recently opened a Security Command Centre in Bengaluru to improve cyber resilience and capacity development of the industry.

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