Abstract

India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and will be the third-largest by 2030. This growth developed plenty of opportunities and also created a lot of traditional and non-traditional security challenges for India. In the traditional security domain, with the changing world order and international security dynamics, India faced significant strategic challenges in South Asia, specifically border disputes with China and Pakistan. In the non-traditional security domain, India faced different economic, environmental, social, and political challenges. In the Artificial Intelligence and digital eras, the paradigms of national security have expanded beyond traditional military threats. Cyber-Financial (Cy-Fi) fraud is one of the major non-traditional security challenges for India. On one hand, the rapid digitalisation in India has offered several economic and social benefits, and on the other, it has also provided a fertile land for cybercrime and Cy-Fi fraud. As the nature of non-traditional security threats is transnational, Cy-Fi fraud is also not limited to inside India. International actors are playing prominent roles in Cy-Fi fraud in India.

The paper analyses the impact of Cy-Fi fraud in India’s national security. It examines how Cy-Fi fraud is not limited to individuals and businesses. It is multidimensional and transnational and poses a serious threat to economic, political, and social stability, the trust in digital governance and, at large, to India’s national security. The paper argued that the transnational and technologically advanced nature of cybercrime and cyber-financial fraud complicates India’s response mechanism. It has evolved into a multidimensional national security challenge which require to adopt a comprehensive national security approach with improved cybersecurity architecture, legal framework and international cooperation mechanisms. To control cybercrime and Cy-Fi fraud, collaborative efforts from different ministries and institutions are required.