Parliament Watch: 29,154 URLs blocked by MeitY since 2018; low conviction rate in POCSO cases

The 2023 Budget Session of Indian Parliament on Friday saw questions answered on cyber attacks on government agencies, progress of the TIDE 2.0 Scheme and the low conviction rate in POCSO cases..To a question by Delhi Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) revealed that as per information tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 0, 2, 21, 35, 26, 23, 41, 111 and 198 ransomware incidents and similar cyber attacks affecting Indian companies operating in the country were observed during the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively..During the same years, a total of 3,719, 4,916, 5,461, 33,514, 70,798, 85,797, 54,314, 48,285 and 1,92,439 cyber security incidents related to government agencies, institutions and undertakings were observed..Odisha Rajya Sabha MP Amar Patnaik sought to know the progress of MeitY's Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0) Scheme..The scheme was initiated in 2019 to promote technology-based entrepreneurship through financial and technical support to incubators..The reply stated that after the approval of the scheme, 51 TIDE 2.0 centres were made operational since the last quarter of FY 2020-21..Further, it was revealed that out of over 3,000 applicants, 826 startups had received the TIDE grants out of the decided allocation of 1,200 startups for three years. The state/union territory-wise details are as follows:.In response to a question by Kerala Rajya Sabha MP V Sivadasan, MeitY revealed that under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2,799, 3,635, 9,849, 6,096 and 6,775 URLs were blocked by it in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively..The platform-wise details of the URLs blocked by the Ministry over the past five years are as follows:.In the Lok Sabha, Telangana MPs Venkatesh Netha Borlakunta and G Ranjith Reddy asked whether it was true that the conviction rate in cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act since 2014 had never crossed 38%..They also sought to know if any remedial measures were proposed to be taken by the government to increase the conviction rate..Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, in her reply revealed that in the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 the conviction rate under the Act was 29.6%, 33.2%, 34.2%, 34.6%, 39.6% and 32.2 %..For the years 2014 and 2015, state-wise and UT-wise data was provided separately. In 2014, the conviction rate in states was 30%, while in UTs it was 35.6%. The following year, the conviction rate in states was 36%, while in UTs it was 41.3%.