Union Finance and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Monday emphasised the need to have a tech-savvy force to protect digital infrastructure, such as banks and stock markets, amid growing misuse of technology to disrupt these systems. She also urged Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) to ensure that academics keep up pace with fast-evolving technologies getting obsolete every two years. Hailing RRU for filling a vital gap in national security training and upskilling, she said, “At this stage, it is important for us to recognise newer challenges that are facing the country’s security, not just at the borders today. Technology, as much as it is available for us to increase productivity, is also open to be misused by some vested interests or dark forces. who misuse their skills and the digital world to threaten many of our installations many of our digital payment areas or even they digital areas with which many of our institutions premier institutions run, whether it is stock markets, the banks or payment institutions, or whether it is those portals which run your daily services of e-marketing or even those which are running platform services for fetching your cabs”. She was speaking at the fourth convocation of RRU in rural Gandhinagar where students, along with several serving members of the police, paramilitary and armed forces received their degrees. On the fast-pace evolution of technology, Sitharaman said, “What was technology two years ago is slightly outdated today. You have newer technology replacing it so the training that you offer will also have to constantly keep upgrading itself and making sure that your people the trained people from the university are on the top of things, whether it is looking at physical assets that are being protected, or digital assets which have been protected the instruments that you use. Your training will have to constantly upgrade yourself so that you are ahead of the curve, ahead of the mischief makers so that you can protect us as a people and our assets”.
