Cyber Safety Is Non-Negotiable As India Goes Cashless

Driven by the country's digital revolution, financial inclusion in India over the past decade has been remarkable, with bank account ownership growing among Indians from 35% in 2011 to 78% in 2021.

- Fauzia Khan

Picture a small vegetable vendor in rural Maharashtra who spent hours traveling to collect payments or send money home. Today, with just a few taps on her smartphone, she handles daily transactions through UPI, accepts digital payments, and manages to pay her children's college fees online.

This revolutionary transition has opened new avenues for financial inclusion, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas, providing access to banking and financial facilities previously inaccessible.

However, the same vendor could receive a call from a fraudster claiming to be from her bank, speaking about suspicious transactions.

Panicking about her own savings, she might follow the caller's urgent instructions to "secure" her account, only to lose her monthly income.

Thousands of times a day similar scenarios play across India from street vendors to established industrialists.

Between January and April 2024, Indians lost about Rs 1,750 crore through over 740,000 cybercrime complaints, with the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre recording approximately 7,000 daily complaints by May 2024.

While technology has democratized digital payments, turning smartphones into banks and established digital wallets as the norm, it has also unveiled sophisticated financial threats.