As India undergoes speedy digital transformation, the alternatives are immense — however so are the dangers. Cybercrime losses exceeded ₹1,750 crore within the first 4 months of 2024 alone. [1] Whereas India requires at the least a million cybersecurity professionals, its present workforce is lower than half that quantity. [2] This makes it paramount not solely to equip residents with information on tips on how to keep secure on-line, but additionally to coach the cybersecurity workforce India urgently wants.
That is the problem that sits on the coronary heart of the partnership between Cisco and the NIIT Basis, an India-based nonprofit centered on training and ability growth that helped us positively influence 50 million individuals in India. Since 2008, Cisco and NIIT Basis have partnered on initiatives that bridge the digital divide, together with varied coaching packages for India’s youth. Constructing on this robust basis, in 2022, we launched a flagship initiative: Cyber Suraksha.
A multipronged method to cyber security
Aligned with Cisco’s technique to leverage expertise and partnerships to sort out vital wants in training and financial growth, the Cyber Suraksha program goals to construct widespread information on cyber security whereas coaching younger individuals for cybersecurity careers. This system — designed as a complete response to India’s escalating cybersecurity challenges — is structured round three key programs:
- Cyber Consciousness: A 20-hour foundational program for ages 13+ overlaying private on-line security and safety towards cyber threats like identification theft, cyber-bullying, and fraud.
- Cyber Good: A complicated course for school college students interested by cybersecurity and getting ready for careers within the discipline.
- Cyber Workforce: A complete, employability-focused program designed to coach people for roles within the cybersecurity trade.
Cyber Suraksha’s influence by the numbers
Over a three-year grant interval (2022–2025), Cyber Suraksha pursued an formidable imaginative and prescient: coaching a million people throughout India in cybersecurity expertise and consciousness. By March 2025, this system had surpassed that aim throughout its three programs, demonstrating the curriculum’s effectiveness and the widespread demand for accessible digital security coaching.
This system’s influence has been each wide-reaching and inclusive, spanning communities typically left behind in tech training. With greater than 40% feminine participation, this system helps to reshape a discipline the place ladies are sometimes underrepresented globally. Moreover, contributors who discovered employment after finishing this system noticed their household incomes rise by a mean of 39% over a three-year interval, highlighting how digital expertise and cybersecurity coaching can straight contribute to financial mobility.
Actual lives, actual influence: Tales from the Cyber Suraksha program
Whereas the statistics inform a robust story of scale, the true influence of Cyber Suraksha is greatest understood by the lives it has reworked. Rehana, a 31-year-old trans lady and neighborhood advocate from New Delhi, seen that her neighborhood was notably vulnerable to cyber threats resulting from a lack of information. “The Cyber Suraksha initiative empowered me to acknowledge and reply to cyber threats,” she defined. “I developed important cybersecurity expertise by mentorship and sensible expertise.” At this time, she’s captivated with elevating cyber consciousness and works to assist her neighborhood defend themselves on-line.
Private experiences with cyber fraud motivated each Apurba, a 25-year-old laptop software graduate from rural West Bengal, and Anand, a 50-year-old yoga trainer from Delhi, to enroll in Cyber Suraksha. Each had been focused by on-line scams, from unauthorized financial institution transactions to electronic mail breaches. “The programs offered me with superior expertise and a robust theoretical basis,” Apurba shared, crediting this system with getting ready him for his profession. For Anand, the coaching supplied one thing equally useful: “The Cyber Suraksha program drastically enhanced my understanding of fraud ways and tips on how to stop them.” At this time, Apurba works in cybersecurity whereas Anand actively raises consciousness about cyber security in his neighborhood.
The partnerships advancing cybersecurity in India
Cyber Suraksha’s success displays the power of the partnership between Cisco and NIIT Basis. Collectively, we’ve reached underserved populations — from rural youth to older adults — equipping them with expertise that open pathways to sustainable livelihoods.
Reaching this scale required partnerships at each stage: greater than 500 schools, 129 NGOs, and three,000+ authorities colleges throughout 27 states and 5 union territories offered grassroots entry and native perception. Expertise platforms for challenge administration, influence monitoring, and AI-driven studying enabled this system to adapt rapidly and personalize content material. NIIT Basis’s neighborhood networks mixed with Cisco’s expertise infrastructure created a depth of influence that neither of us may have achieved alone.
Trying forward towards a digitally resilient future
The journey doesn’t finish right here. Constructing on Cyber Suraksha’s success, Cisco and NIIT Basis are launching Cyber Suraksha Plus to succeed in a further 2.7 million individuals over the following three years. The initiative will preserve its deal with reaching all learners, aiming for 40% feminine participation, and can develop into synthetic intelligence coaching alongside cybersecurity.
By a number of supply channels — instructor-led classes, train-the-trainer fashions, and self-paced platforms just like the Study@NIITFoundation app — this system will prolong its attain into much more distant areas and susceptible communities. Strengthened partnerships with authorities establishments, schools, and grassroots organizations will allow sustainable, cost-effective supply at scale.
The tales of Rehana, Apurba, Anand, and a million others show what’s potential when expertise, training, and partnership come collectively. As Cisco and NIIT Basis proceed this work, we’re not simply constructing cybersecurity expertise — we’re creating pathways to alternative and contributing to a safer digital future for all of India.
