The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Law Institute University (NLIU) of Bhopal.
Under the MoU, the sides will collaborate to implement an online capacity building programme on cyberlaw, crime investigation, and digital forensics through NeGD’s learning management system (LMS).
LMS is a software application that automates the administration, tracking, and reporting of training events. It is a pioneer project under e-Kranti (an e-governance plan), which is a part of the Digital India initiative.
NeGD said that in line with Digital India’s vision to make the country a digitally-empowered society and a knowledge economy, there is a need to enhance IT skills. Also, to develop an adequate number of trained human resources for handling a variety of tasks including the creation and delivery of government services.
According to a press statement released by the Ministry of Law and Justice, with the advent of the digital age and a surge in mobile and computer manufacturing, there has been an increase in cybercrimes. This poses a challenge for law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
The goal of the programme is to enable police officers, state cyber cells, LEAs, prosecutors, and judicial officers to acquire the requisite skillset to deal with cyber forensics cases efficiently.
It will also help LEAs adopt global best practices, standards, and guidelines. NeGD and NLIU, under Digital India, will offer a nine-month online PG Diploma Course in cyberlaw, crime investigation, digital forensics to 1,000 officials.
A Cyber Forensics Lab will be set up on the National Law University (NLU) Delhi campus to facilitate this course. Other law schools and universities like the National Law School of India University (Bangalore), the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (Patiala), etc. will also be involved with the programme in the future.
The law schools will provide the necessary faculty members, expertise, and content for the virtual classes and development of e-content. NLIU, Bhopal will award PG Diploma Certificates to candidates who complete the course.
NeGD was launched in 2009 by MeitY as an Independent business division under the Digital India corporation. Since its inception, NeGD has been supporting MeitY in programme management and the implementation of e-governance projects.
It provides strategic direction in the framing of policies and implementation strategies for Digital India. And it offers support to Central and state governments for mission mode projects (MMPs).
NeGD is also responsible for implementing the Capacity Building scheme that aims to strengthen capacities within government departments at both the Central and state levels.
It is difficult for government officials to find human resources equipped with specific skills and competencies in relevant areas. The remedy this, every department has to evolve its own competency framework (CF) that acts as a baseline to create the required training programmes. These training programmes, under the Capacity Building scheme, identify the right kind of training course for the right person that enables structuring the pre-defined job roles.