DoT, Department of Telecommunication has directed all state-owned companies, central ministries and government departments to give preference to locally produced Cyber Security products in all public procurements.

DoT states, “Preference has to be given to ‘Make in India’ cyber security products in public procurement by central ministries/departments, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and government organisations.”

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) earlier this month states, “It’s awash with complaints from droves of indigenous cyber product companies about the challenges the latter are facing in participating in public procurement of such products.”

The MeitY, in a circular dated March 4, states, “It had received several complaints that the procuring agencies are citing restrictive and discriminatory conditions such as turnover, Gartner quadrant, and other certifications in their tenders,” which is making it tough for local cyber security product makers to participate in the relevant bidding process.”

The telecom ministry and MeitY’s joint call to all government actions to buy locally manufactured cyber-security products comes at a time when cyber security attacks and breaches in the country are calculated to have jumped by over 500 percent since the Covid19 lockdowns started a year back.

During the pandemic, internet service providers had said they received cyber-attack alerts from corporate clients almost every alternate day compared with an average of once a week, pre-lockdowns. Back in December 2019, MeitY, in a notification, had described a cyber-security product as an ‘appliance’ or ‘software’ produced for protecting information, equipment, computer resources or communication devices from unauthorised access, use, disclosures, disruption and destruction.

Later it added, “Domestically manufactured cyber security product was one “whose intellectual property is owned by an Indian company/start-up.”

MeitY had also advised that the Indian company/start-up would require demonstrating intellectual property (IP) ownership linked with the cyber security products along with the applicable trademarks.

The electronics ministry, states. “Preference would have to be given to a company incorporated and registered in India or start-ups that meet the definition prescribed by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), provided the revenue from the product and intellectual property (IP) licensing accrues to the firm in India.”

It also added, “Resellers, dealers, distributors, implementation/support services agencies of products with limited rights to IP to enable the transfer of rights to use, distribute and modify, would not be eligible for getting preference under the public procurement scheme for cyber security products.”