Cybercrime in India

India’s digital transformation has been one of the most remarkable stories of the past decade. With the spread of BharatNet, affordable smartphones, and the exponential rise of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the country has leapfrogged into an era where even rural households rely on digital platforms for banking, education and communication. By 2025, nearly a billion Indians are online, and the nation is hailed as a global leader in digital public infrastructure.

But behind this success story lies a darker truth. As citizens embraced online services, cybercriminals found fertile ground to exploit. The scale of the problem is staggering: the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal has logged over 53.9 lakh complaints since its launch in 2019, involving frauds worth more than Rs 31,500 crore. Cybercrime now extends beyond phishing and identity theft to include ransomware, deepfakes, digital arrest scams and even human trafficking linked to cyber