SRINAGAR: The Central Government has conducted 6,650 cyber security awareness workshops across the country, reaching more than 11.37 lakh participants, while strengthening legal and institutional measures to combat cyber frauds and online financial scams, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Replying to an unstarred question by D Ravi Kumar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said the government’s cyber security framework is aimed at ensuring an open, safe, trusted and accountable cyberspace, backed by provisions under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and other related laws.
The minister said the Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) project has so far organised 6,650 awareness workshops, covering over 11.37 lakh participants, including school and college students, teachers, law enforcement personnel, government officials and members of the public. Multilingual awareness material, including handbooks, posters, videos and brochures, has also been disseminated through print, electronic and social media.
The government said cyber frauds are punishable under various provisions of the Information Technology Act, including identity theft, cheating by personation and computer-related offences, while the IT Rules, 2021 require intermediaries to prevent unlawful or misleading content and remove such content within three hours of receiving directions from a competent court or authorised government agency.
To strengthen cybercrime enforcement, the Ministry of Home Affairs has established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, enabling citizens to report cyber offences online. Complaints are investigated by the respective State and Union Territory law enforcement agencies.
The government also highlighted the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS) and the 1930 helpline, launched to facilitate immediate reporting of financial cyber frauds and help prevent fraudulent transfer of funds.
According to the reply, the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) has brought together banks, payment aggregators, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries and law enforcement agencies for coordinated action against cybercrime. The Samanvaya platform and its Pratibimb module have also been deployed to facilitate cybercrime data sharing, analytics and interstate coordination among investigating agencies.
The minister said CERT-In regularly issues cyber safety advisories and awareness material, while the government observes National Cyber Security Month every October and Safer Internet Day, which was observed on February 10, 2026, to promote online safety.
He said awareness campaigns have also included multilingual caller tunes launched on December 19, 2024, television and radio campaigns, SMS alerts, social media outreach through CyberDost, the weekly DD News programme Cyber Alert, and public awareness drives during the IPL, Kumbh Mela 2025 and Suraj Kund Mela 2025.
The government noted that policing and public order are State subjects under the Constitution, with States and Union Territories responsible for investigating and prosecuting cybercrime. The Centre supports them through advisories and financial assistance for capacity building, while the National Crime Records Bureau compiles national cybercrime statistics in its annual Crime in India report.
Notably, the government did not provide data in its reply on the number of cyber frauds during the last three years or the number of cybercrime complaints received and resolved during 2025-26, despite these being sought in the question.
