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PM calls for global framework against cyber fraud and deepfakes

By CAShorts DeskPublished Updated Sources: PMO, PIB; The Hindu, 8 October 2026

PM calls for global framework against cyber fraud and deepfakes
Illustration (AI-generated)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inaugurating the 10th India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on October 8, 2026, called for a global framework against cyber fraud and deepfakes involving governments, technology companies, telecom operators and financial institutions. He urged the GSMA and telecom operators worldwide to build a mechanism that stops fraud before it reaches people.

Syllabus: GS3 · IT, Space, Biotech & IPR; GS2 · Governance & e-Governance; GS2 · Groupings & Agreements

Why it matters

A retired teacher gets a video call from someone who looks and sounds exactly like her son, asking for money at once. A shopkeeper gets a call from a man posing as a police officer. Deepfakes make such frauds far more convincing, and a cloned voice can talk a victim into reading out the one-time password that two-factor authentication depends on. The caller may sit in one country, his helpers in a second and the victim in a third, so no single police force can trace the money alone. A shared mechanism among operators, banks and governments could block the call or freeze the money before the loss happens.

Prelims pointers

  • Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In): national agency for cyber incident response under Section 70B of the IT Act, 2000; works under MeitY; operational since 2004.
  • Information Technology Act, 2000: Section 66C punishes identity theft; Section 66D punishes cheating by personation using a computer resource.
  • Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs as a scheme in 2018; an attached office of the Ministry since 1 July 2024.
  • Seventh Schedule: 'Police' and 'Public order' are in the State List, so States and Union Territories investigate and prosecute cybercrime; the Centre supports them with advisories and funds.
  • Mutual legal assistance: under the Allocation of Business Rules, the Ministry of Home Affairs is India's nodal ministry and central authority for such requests in criminal matters.
  • Sanchar Saathi (Department of Telecommunications): its Chakshu facility takes reports of suspected fraud calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages; people who have lost money report on 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in.
  • Unified Payments Interface (UPI): launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India; part of India's digital public infrastructure.
  • GSMA: the global body representing mobile operators and the wider mobile ecosystem; it organises the MWC events in Barcelona, Shanghai, Kigali and Doha.

Practise a UPSC-style question

With reference to India's institutions against cyber threats, consider the following statements:

1. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team is the national agency for cyber incident response under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

2. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre functions under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. (a) 1 only
  2. (b) 2 only
  3. (c) Both 1 and 2
  4. (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer

Answer: (a) 1 only

1 is correct: Section 70B of the IT Act, 2000 makes CERT-In, which works under MeitY, the national agency for cyber incident response, alerts and advisories. 2 is incorrect: the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) was set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2018 and has been its attached office since July 2024.

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