Letters to the EDITOR: Digital Fraud and Redesigning Awareness

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Digital fraud and redesigning awareness

No doubt there is spectacular growth in digital payment in India. The government's push for promoting a digital payment ecosystem has brought about significant advancement in the digital economy and rapid expansion of e-commerce in the country. What is worrying is that online financial fraud, syphoning money from account holders and duping digital payment users, is more than 60 percent of total cybercrime complaints. It is the biggest problem among a large section of people who are not financially educated to use the ATM card on the machines on their own, and surprisingly, they have been introduced to the digital payment ecosystem as recipients of direct benefit transfers or other benefits involving digital transactions under various government schemes and programmes. Their complete dependence on strangers in an ATM to help them withdraw cash or checking balance through sharing the PIN results in loss of money. Addressing the low level of awareness problem among these sections of people is the biggest challenge for the government agencies. The editorial 'Redesigning Awareness Strategy Against Digital Payment Fraud,' published in your esteemed daily on March 14, has rightly emphasised redesigning different awareness campaign strategies with the objective of segregating digital payment users based on their financial literacy level, which needs to be given topmost priority. The parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology's suggestion to focus on preventive measures rather than punitive measures appears to be the most effective approach to deal with the problem of fraudsters who are operating cyber frauds from their bases in foreign countries. It is of utmost importance for the concerned authorities to put an end to fraud in the Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) through technological upgradation and adoption of regulatory measures while designing different awareness campaign strategies for different sections of digital payment users and online banking customers, which has become essential to reassure the customers about the digital safety of their financial transactions using the Aadhaar card. Protecting the country's economy is vital for the government, and it will be possible when the digital payment system is more transparent in financial transactions.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

Tasting one’s own medicine

We in the past have seen many hijacking incidents of planes by terrorists demanding the release of their comrades, which on many occasions led to massive loss of human lives. In this regard, India happens to be one of the worst sufferers. The hijacking of the IC 814 INDIAN AIRLINES aeroplane some time back by Pak-based terrorists to Kandahar is still fresh in our minds, which compelled the then-central government to release a few dreaded Pakistani terrorists lodged in Indian jail.

Now instead of a plane, a train has been hijacked in Pakistan, the epicentre of international terrorism itself, by Baloch terrorists, which already has cost enough bloodshed. As a routine to hide their failure before the international media, once again the Pakistan government has started blaming India for this hijacking incident. One should not throw stones at others houses when his/her own house is made of glass. Is Pakistan now tasting its own medicine?

Dr. Ashim Chowdhury

Guwahati.

India’s big win against New Zealand 

Team India has secured the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, beating New Zealand by four wickets in the final in Dubai. This is the third time they have won the competition. The entire Indian team performed well to take the title home. Skipper Rohit Sharma played a crucial role, scoring a team-leading 76 runs to guide his team to the title. However, the spin department of India was on top due to their laudable performance.

New Zealand also deserves recognition for their impressive performances throughout this tournament, particularly in the semi-finals against South Africa, where they secured a 50-run victory. Other teams can draw valuable lessons from these two sides and work on improving their weaknesses to come back stronger in future competitions.

India’s spectacular victory in the Champions Trophy is a testament to the team’s disciplined performance, strategic gameplay, and sportsmanship.

I have observed that every player selected for India has played at least 200-300

domestic matches, which is why they have established themselves as such a strong and successful team.

   New Zealand has also played excellent cricket throughout the tournament. But in the final, they could not perform at a match-winning level. They probably fell short by 25–30 runs in the first innings, possibly due to a tricky pitch that made it difficult for their batters to score as much as they should have.

Jubel D'Cruz,

(jubeldcruz@yahoo.com)