‘Cyber Security Cell to protect digital assets’
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 7: In order to realize the goal of “Digital J&K” in shortest possible timeframe, the Government of the Union Territory has chalked out multi-pronged strategy and asked all the departments to pursue set of smart objectives along six dimensions. Further, it has been decided to set up Cyber Security Cell to protect digital assets and establish Remote Data Recovery Centre (R-DRC) to protect data from loss in real disaster situation with full business continuity.
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During the past three years, J&K has made big strides towards digital transformation and even launched “Digital Jammu and Kashmir” Programme in mission mode aimed at improvement in service delivery to the citizens, the Economic Survey said, adding in consonance with the commitment of experience to the citizens with ‘Zero Tolerance to Corruption’ by means of providing all G2C online services at the doorstep without visiting Government offices and to facilitate accessibility at a single place, “e-UNNAT” portal has been developed.
Beginning with 33 services at the time of launch in July 2022, 1166 services have been integrated up to November 2024. Of these services, 501 services have been integrated with Rapid Assessment System (RAS) to access feedback submitted by the citizens on RAS platform.
In order to realize the goal of “Digital J&K”, a strategy has been chalked out and vision will be translated into reality by pursuing a set of smart objectives along six dimensions—–policy framework, architecture, infrastructure development, process transformation, capacity building and service delivery.
All the departments of the Government shall endure to design, develop and implement these programmes by mainstreaming Digital J&K in their functions, the Economic Survey said.
About policy framework, which is essential for driving large-scale digital transformation efforts, the Economic Survey said, “a series of key policies, including the Rules under the Public Services Guarantee Act, the Data Governance Framework and Data Management Policy and the Information Security and Privacy Policies will be notified”, adding “these policies will address critical areas such as data governance, data management, information security and privacy. Additionally, a Policy on Procurement for Digital Transformation will be introduced to support the overall initiative and ensure seamless integration of digital systems”.
Further, India Enterprise Architecture framework notified by the Union Ministry of IT will be leveraged and customized to the requirements of J&K. As a corollary, the Agile IndEA framework will be adopted to ensure that the development and implementation of architecture proceed in speedy and iterative cycles.
As per the Economic Survey, the architecture and size of the existing State Data Centre (SDC) would be reviewed and streamlined to act as the single source of computing infrastructure for all departments of the UT with utmost professionalism. Further, Government cloud environment would be established in the existing SDC to host all Government applications and data securely and cost-effectively.
Moreover, a Near Disaster Recovery Centre (N-DRC) will be established within 10 KM of the existing SDC to protect from downtime and to maintain business continuity of notified critical applications. Similarly, a Remote Disaster Recovery Centre (R-DRC) will be established in a different seismic zone to protect from data loss in real disaster situation with full business continuity.
Mentioning that success of Digital J&K is dependent upon robust connectivity within and across the Government departments and agencies as also across the society, the Economic Survey said, “while the connectivity across the society is to be partly fulfilled by the optical fibre network of BharatNet, the internal connectivity within the Government is fulfilled by JKSWAN.
“The combined power of these two is foundational to the evolution of a connected community and a connected Government”, Survey said, adding “strategically it is important to lay digital super-highway to traverse through districts, tehsils and connected up to Gram Panchayats for mainstreaming Digital J&K rapidly and the progress of BharatNet is critical in this regard”.
JKSWAN would be extended horizontally at District, Tehsil and Block Headquarters; more Point of Presence (PoPs) would be established to cover the major public-facing departments like Revenue, Police, Urban local bodies, Registration, Agriculture, Industry, Health, Education; Secretariat LAN would be established at Jammu and Srinagar; District LAN would be established at District Headquarters and the Government Wi-fi/Intranet would be made seamless at all Government offices including J&K House at Delhi.
A Cyber Security Cell will be set up to protect digital assets and comprehensive capacity building programs will be implemented for employees of the J&K UT in the IT domain. “Finally, the use of emerging technologies such as AI, ML, Big Data and Data Transformation will drive future growth and innovation in digital services”, the Economic Survey said.
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