NASSCOM-DSCI identify opportunities to transform India into a Global hub for Cyber Security

Providing an insightful view into the steps needed to grow India as a global hub for cyber security, The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Data Security Council of India (DSCI) today announced the ‘Growing Cyber Security Industry, Roadmap for India’ report. Building upon the honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of making India the global hub of Cyber Security products and services, the report defines a roadmap for the next ten years that will grow the cyber security market in India.

NASSCOM envisages the Indian IT industry to achieve a size of USD 350-400 bn by 2025. Given the existing status and the possibility of rapid growth, the country can aspire to build a Cyber Security product and services industry of USD 35 bn by 2025, and generate a skilled workforce of one million in the security sector, to cater to the rise in global demand. The global cyber security market is expected to reach approximately 190 billion USD by 2025 from 85 billion USD today, and will be driven primarily by the increasing digitization wave and smartphone penetration, leading to newer attack surfaces & ever increasing number & sophistication of cyber threats. With cyber security products constituting a 38-billion USD market in 2015, network security will emerge as the most attractive product segment by size, while security and vulnerability management has the highest growth prospects across various geographic regions. India being a primary hub for growing smartphone penetration and digitization it is imperative to build a robust cyber security products and services industry in the country.

Speaking on the launch of the report, R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said, “For India to become a global cyber security hub, a list of 16 initiatives has been formulated by NASSCOM-DSCI. These initiatives vary in terms of priority and should be pursued within the next five years. Effective program roll-out and strategic vision realization will require disciplined management of the 16 key initiatives suggested by the report. In short, a substantial trajectory change is required by Indian cyber security industry to achieve its growth vision.”

The report identifies Managed security service (MSS), Security and Vulnerability Management (SVM) and network security emerge as attractive opportunities globally, with MSS emerging as the most attractive opportunity, with highest growth of (more than 12%) and largest market size (18 billion USD).

Rama Vedashree, CEO, DSCI, while talking about the report said, “Given the dynamic nature of the cyber space, we firmly believe that the industry, government and the entire gamut of stakeholders in the ecosystem, must and will, continually forge synergies at all levels. Cyber Security Clusters, a recommendation of our report, can be a key enabler for growing the ecosystem rapidly. We believe that this report will act as the blueprint to define the cyber security ecosystem in India and provide direction to both Industry and Government.”

The report also highlights an in-depth demand side assessment of all key global geographies, and critical sectors of the global cyber security industry. An evaluation of global cyber security clusters reveals that policy and financing incentives along with opportunities for skill development emerge as pivotal factors. These clusters have contributed immensely to the development of the cyber security industry in the respective countries. Clusters are also important to promote the growth of cyber security start-ups, SMEs and large players through numerous funding and financing initiatives, tax breaks, incubators and accelerators and provisions to promote R&D. The growth is supported by the availability of niche cyber security skills in clusters, which are developed through a close collaboration between the industry and academia.

Last year, NASSCOM-DSCI had established the Cyber Security Task Force (CSTF) initiative to give shape to the Prime Minister’s vision. The CSTF aims at growing the Indian Cyber Security Products and Services Industry to USD 35 billion; creating one million Cyber Security jobs and 1,000 Cyber Security startups by 2025.