Cyber insecurity biggest threat to Indian businesses

Information and cyber insecurity has emerged as the biggest threat to business operations in India, followed by terrorism and insurgency, a survey on Friday revealed.

The findings were released shortly before a spokesperson for the BJP outlined job creation and capital formation as major challenges before the government.

"The biggest challenge for us is how will we create jobs.

Now we are facing this problem with technological innovation and robotics coming in, further we will have a difficulty in job creation.

"Capital formation is the big challenge the government is now facing. In spite of all the efforts of investment from the government's side, private investment has not taken place, capital formation is not taking place, that is one challenge which the government has to take care of," Gopal Krishna Agarwal, National Spokesperson for Economic Issues, BJP, said.

He was speaking at the release of Ficci-Pinkerton India Risk Survey 2017, which noted that information and cyber insecurity has become more pronounced due to the shift that India is undergoing towards digitisation of various assets and services being delivered via Internet and mobile platforms, and the ever-present loopholes that hackers breach upon. The risk emanating from terrorism and insurgency rose two spots from last year to rank as the second biggest threat to businesses in India this year, according to the survey.

It described the left-wing extremism perpetrated by communist terrorist groups as the most severe terror threat.

"The persistent risk posed by terrorism and insurgencies creates a risk perception in the minds of investors with interest in the Indian market.

"Although India has invested heavily in its security capability to mount effective counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations, the effects of the perception of this risk continue to affect businesses especially with respect to foreign investment," the survey said.