Indian
Government is presently engaged in making Digital India a success.
Many good initiatives have already been taken under Digital India and
its predecessor National E-Governance Plan (NeGP). After the
Demonetisation process, Indian Government is also stressing upon
grand usage of digital payments in India.
Perry4Law Organisation (P4LO) has
published the Digital Payments and Cashless Economy Trends of India 2017 that
has covered many crucial issues regarding use, adoption and
safeguards for using digital payments in India. The year 2017 may see
some significant steps in the direction of encouraging more and more
use of digital payments. However, there would be many techno legal
challenges that have to be tackled by Indian Government before this
goal is achieved.
For
instance, cyber security, data security, data protection, privacy
safeguards, etc are some of the issues that are still vexing Indian
Government. Digital payments that are insecure would be more trouble
than relief. It would only increase cyber crimes and customers’
disputes in the long run.
As
on date, the mobile cyber security is
a big challenge for Indian Government and various stakeholders. If
mobile security is missing, there is little hope for secure mobile banking as
well. Similarly, cyber security of banks in India is also not in a
good shape.
This is so even when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has prescribed a
cyber security framework for banks of India.
Digital
payments in these circumstances would be really challenging for the
Indian Government. The most troublematic part would be use of Aadhaar
Enabled Payment System (AEPS) that is not only highly insecure but
would also amount to use of an “Unconstitutional Technology”.
Cyber security, data security and privacy aspects of Aadhaar have not
yet been resolved. It is not a good idea to use AEPS for any purpose,
including digital payments purposes.
As
we move towards a digital economy, we would face sophisticated and
global cyber attacks and cyber crimes. Whether we like it or not, we
are not prepared to deal with cyber attacks and cyber crimes. Cyber crimes investigation
capabilities of Indian law enforcement agencies must be enhanced
through techno legal trainings and skills development. As cyber
attacks and cyber crimes are international in nature. It requires
good techno legal training to trace, investigate and punish the cyber
criminal.
Digital
payments infrastructure of India needs to be robust and resilient
from cyber security and cyber crimes perspective. Similarly,
liability of banks and customers for cyber frauds and cyber thefts
must be clearly specified by Indian Government. An effective dispute
resolution procedure must also be established by Indian Government to
resolve disputes arising out of digital payments.
A
test platform named Online Dispute Resolution and Cyber Arbitration
has been launched by Techno Legal Centre of Excellence for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in India (TLCEODRI)
of Perry4Law Organisation (P4LO). The platform is resolving disputes
pertaining to digital payments, cyber frauds, ATM frauds, credit card
frauds, debit card frauds, online banking frauds, mobile banking
frauds, etc. The entire process of dispute resolution is using ODR
mechanism and parties can resolve their disputes without even leaving
their homes.
Perry4Law
Organisation (P4LO) hopes that digital payments would be safe, secure
and civil liberties compliant in the year 2017. However, Indian
Government must take pro active steps in this regard if it wishes
digital payments to be successful in India.
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