The Government of India will prioritize the locally produced cyber security products in all public procurements where the intellectual property rights are owned by companies or start-ups established in India. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had issued an order which states that all the government procurement agencies will prefer Cyber Security Products which are manufactured or produced domestically. Earlier, a notification was issued which is based on Public Procurement (Preference to make in India) order 2017. It aims at enhancing income and employment in the country. As per the order, the preference will be granted to only those companies which are established and registered in India or start-ups that fulfill the definition prescribed by the Department of Industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). The new order is also applicable for all the ministers and departments under the central government.  MeitY will act like a nodal ministry for implementation of the cybersecurity. 

Cyber Security will become the backbone for India’s national and economic security in the future due to the preferential market access, said cyber Security firm Innefu Labs in response to the notification. “It is imperative for a country to use and promote indigenous cybersecurity products to protect our information space as well as bring economic prosperity. US, China, and Russia have already started this process and it is high time India follows suit,” said Co-founder of Innefu Labs, Tarun Wig.

Other than India, several other countries are also making their cybersecurity law more powerful. Vietnam had recently approved a controversial cybersecurity law that would make it obligatory for the internet giants like Google and Facebook to host servers within the country and to share “locally” important data to enable a country to fight rising cybercrime. The law will come into effect on January 1, 2019. China had also passed a cybersecurity law in June 2017. The law imposed serious legal liabilities on companies that breached its provisions. According to the order, reseller, dealer, distributor, implementation or support service agencies of the product will not be entitled to getting preference under the Scheme.