New Delhi: The finance minister on Tuesday said the effective use of digital governance and tech-enabled solutions in facilitating and regulating businesses is the way forward, but also cautioned regulators about the threats from hackers suggesting that they should have domain experts to protect their digital properties from unscrupulous elements.
Sitharaman said the next 25 years -- which the government is celebrating as ‘Amrit Kaal’ when India will attain 100 years of Independence -- will be driven by digital considerations because that has now become a “good” habit making lives of people easy in terms of “fair, accountable and transparent” practices. She was speaking at the Iconic Day Celebrations of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), a week-long event launched by the Prime Minister on Monday.
Addressing a gathering of financial sector regulators under the aegis of MCA, Sitharaman said they should judge the extent and effect of adopting digital governance to make ease of doing business and improve systems. “You have to be well advanced in understanding the situation rather than be caught unaware,” she said.
She, however, highlighted one of the key challenges from the dark web that could steal data and disrupt the system. The finance minister suggested that they should invest in manpower, people who are experts in the digital field and could prevent any hacking attempt by unscrupulous elements.
{{/usCountry}}She, however, highlighted one of the key challenges from the dark web that could steal data and disrupt the system. The finance minister suggested that they should invest in manpower, people who are experts in the digital field and could prevent any hacking attempt by unscrupulous elements.
{{/usCountry}}“The digital world that we’ve created for our convenience… and the convenience has been tasted by every Indian citizen… Therefore, I would think, we’ll have to equally give attention to [the safety of the system]…,” she said asking them to create a robust firewall to protect their systems.
Increasing use of digital technology in governance is “making our lives continuously easy” but it can itself become “the biggest handicap, if we are not able to prevent any unforeseen disaster that can be in the name of a hacker” or unscrupulous elements who can misuse technology.
Sitharaman, who heads both the finance ministry and MCA, said the corporate affairs ministry is uniquely placed nurture small businesses as well as support larger companies business and small investors. “The two examples I can straight take right upfront are – the Companies Act and also the IBC [the insolvency and Bankruptcy Code]. In order to keep itself robust, time relevant, and nimble [the ministry] continuously kept responding to the need of the hour… and [adopted] global best practices, and therefore didn’t feel shy of going to the Parliament any number of times with amendments…,” she said.