Sunday, March 2, 2014

Online Cyber Security Courses In India Need To Be Encouraged

Cyber security of any nation is dependent upon its skilled cyber force. India has exceptionally good information technology related talent but when it comes to cyber security professionals, India is still lagging far behind than other countries. This is primarily due to defective cyber security and education policies of India and the poor implementation of already scant policies in this crucial field.

India has also not encouraged private institutions and educational institutions to take a lead in the cyber security education and skills development field. On top of it, the students are still not sure whether they need skills or degree while pursuing cyber security education in India. A dominant majority of the students that graduate from even premier technical education institutions are not fit to be absorbed by the industry as they may have the degree but they lack the essential skills needed for the industry. Something is gravely missing at the national education policy level in India.

Recently India released the cyber security policy but the same must be integrated into and part of the national security policy of India opines Praveen Dalal the leading techno legal expert of Asia. Presently this is not happening and we have cyber security initiatives in India that are not operating in harmony and coordination with each other. These policy deficiencies, along with defective education policy of India, have also affected the cyber skills development initiatives of India and this is the reason why we do not have a well organised and properly managed online cyber skills development initiative in India, informs Dalal.

Due to these shortcomings cyber security in India is still maturing where both the legal framework and government policies are trying to accommodate the growing requirements of cyber security. We have very few cyber security research and education centre in India as on date that are tirelessly trying to bridge the cyber security skills gap in India.  

With growing emphasis upon distance learning and e-learning, online cyber security courses in India have attracted much attention. Perry4Law’s Techno Legal Base (PTLB) is the premier institution of India that is providing online cyber security courses in India and online cyber security trainings in India. In fact, the exclusive techno legal cyber security e-learning portal in India is also managed by PTLB.

However, lack of political will and defective educational policies of India are not allowing Indian educational and skill development initiatives to flourish and make major difference. Even the efforts of national skills development corporation (NSDC) have failed to make much difference in this field.

Recently the Supreme Court of India debarred the AICTE from regulating technical educational institutions in India. The Indian government is finalising new norms that will empower universities to regulate around 10,000 institutes in the country. Under the new regulations, all technical institutes need to be affiliated to UGC-recognised universities. The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is also planning to introduce amendments in the existing laws to restore the powers of AICTE and reverse the judgment of Supreme Court. It seems our HRD Ministry and Indian government has wandered much beyond the turf of skills and capabilities development and is flexing their muscles more on the side of power tussle in the education field than doing the needful.