S. Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on Friday, 3 July called for a minimum of 15 per cent of the government's IT budget to be ring-fenced for cybersecurity, warning that digital systems can no longer treat security as an afterthought. Krishnan made the remarks at the Cybersecurity 360 Summit in New Delhi, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with MeitY and CERT-In.

Key Directive from MeitY

Krishnan underscored that ‘security by design’ must become a foundational principle in every stage of technology development and deployment. “When the government spends on IT, at least 15 per cent of the IT budget should go towards cybersecurity,” he said. He also urged industry stakeholders to invest at an optimum level in cybersecurity, actively support domestically developed cybersecurity products, and promptly report cyber incidents to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to reinforce collective defence and information sharing.

Defence Ministry Flags AGI and Quantum Threats

Dr Amit Sharma, Additional Director General and Advisor at the Department of Defence, Ministry of Defence, warned that the global race toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) represents a significant geopolitical shift. He called for a proactive national roadmap to develop frontier AI models within India. Sharma disclosed that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has already issued a Request for Information (RFI) under its technology development programme for foundational AI models in the research domain. He further cautioned that the rise of quantum computing would eventually render conventional cryptographic systems obsolete, making the transition to post-quantum cryptography a national security priority.

Expanding Attack Surface: 5G, 6G and Beyond

Dr Gulshan Rai, Chairman of the CII Cybersecurity Task Force and former National Cyber Security Coordinator, highlighted that the rapid rollout of 5G networks and the anticipated arrival of 6G have significantly widened the cyberattack surface. He noted that this vulnerability extends not just to large enterprises but also to small and medium businesses, which often lack dedicated security infrastructure.

Summit Context and Broader Significance

The Cybersecurity 360 Summit brought together policymakers, industry leaders, and security experts to chart strategies for strengthening India’s digital resilience amid a rapidly evolving global threat landscape. This comes amid a sharp global uptick in state-sponsored cyberattacks and ransomware incidents targeting critical infrastructure. India’s push to embed security into digital governance aligns with its broader ambition to position itself as a trusted digital economy. With the government scaling up digital public infrastructure at pace, the call to institutionalise a 15 per cent cybersecurity budget floor marks a notable policy signal.

The next steps will depend on whether this recommendation is formalised into procurement guidelines or remains advisory, a distinction that will determine its real-world impact across central ministries and state departments.