Sanjay Kumar Das
WBCS (Executive), State Information Security Officer, West Bengal & Joint Secretary
Dept. of IT & Electronics, Government of West Bengal

CIO priorities for 2022
As a government service delivery agent; our outcomes for the current year have been kept at the highest bracket to achieve both counts – equity and service. When Return on Investment (RoI) is measured through social audit, as a facilitator in IT and ITeS domain, West Bengal is presently poised for a hockey-stick growth. Industry has shown great interest in using Karmobhumi the skill-registry platform for the IT/ITeS sector. Web3.0 is exploited by various government services with Blockchain based Death & Birth Registration, Land Records Certification, Drone Data as a Service among many other efforts. StartUps are mentored, hand-held to develop solutions, given the opportunity to conduct Proof of Concept (PoC) studies and are launched by providing the opportunity to get government orders. Most importantly, with nearly five-years of all-encompassing cyber-hygiene awareness drive and cutting-edge upskilling of LEAs and government employees; cyber-crime reporting in the State has increased seven times while, West Bengal is among the top States delivering time-bound justice both in cyber-crime and in cyber-adjudication cases. In 2022-2023; the ambitious target of the State is to cover every household with cyber-hygiene awareness.

Digitization - opportunities galore
With COVID, the society has been transformed into the Being Digital mode where digitisation is a pre-requisite to existence. With this transformation, along came a humongous number of cyber-intrusions. This in turn, has given rise to Cyber Security. The demand of security related tools, consulting and governance solutions along with cutting-edge skills to fight the menace, is on an exponential rise curve. Hence, industry driven solution creators and especially Encryption as a Service providers will become super-successful in the coming years.

IT: The Future of India
The IT industry in India requires upgradation of knowledge at every level. Therefore, cutting edge technological knowledge needs to start at High School. While industry needs to take initiative in making educational institutes aware, teach and train the budding minds on emerging technology. Many states in India along with West Bengal are addressing the need of the industry by bridging them with educational institutes. Collectively, India is on the right track as more and more R&D labs are set up across the country that leverages the powerhouse of knowledge available in abundance. There is little doubt that with facilitating policies and guidelines, the boom in the IT sector will continue unabated in the foreseeable future.