Nodal agency on cards to help states solve digital fraud cases

NEW DELHI: The Centre will soon set up a nodal agency to help states solve cases of digital and online banking fraud. This comes at a time digital transactions have been on the rise, officials said.

The home ministry, in a meeting on Tuesday with officials from the department of telecom, financial services, intelligence and IT, has decided to set up an inter-ministerial committee that will look at ways to deal with increasing cybercrimes, especially related to phishing, fake valets and identity theft. A proposal has also been approved to set up a forensic laboratory in the country to study such cases.

A senior home ministry official said other laboratories in the country too will be equipped with basic technology to handle such cases. "Additionally, 27,500 police officials and 13,000 judicial officials will be trained to solve cybercrime cases. There is also a mass awareness campaign on cards," an official said.

"The number of these cases is at less than 1% now but the ministry wants to take adequate precautions," a senior home ministry official said. The highest number of digital transactions was recorded in December in the months after demonetisation, according to provisional data from the Reserve Bank of India.