MDI Gurgaon launches centre on digital economy, cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity

It may not be something that the Reserve Bank of India has sanctioned and it may not be the perfectly safe asset that ought to be recommended to investors, but the popularity of cryptocurrencies in India is skyrocketing. In fact, the higher the price rises, the greater the interest in it. The trend is so strong that institutions are starting to create programmes around it and the latest one is the prestigious B-School, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon.

The institute has launched a new Centre of Excellence on Digital Economy, Cryptocurrencies and Cyber Security (DECCS). The idea is to encourage academic deliberations and promoting research on emerging technology areas.

Lt Gen (Dr) Rajesh Pant, National Cybersecurity Coordinator in the Prime Minister’s Office, during the virtual inauguration of the Centre, said, "The timing is perfect for setting up DECCS as October is the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month,"

According to the institute, the Centre aims to examine social, economic, organisational, managerial, and political implications of digital economy. It will act as a think tank on issues related to digital economy, cybersecurity and cryptocurrencies, bringing in an India-specific context and discussion.

Speaking on the theme "Challenges for Cyber Security Post Pandemic", Pant said that the Covid pandemic has turned the security architecture on its head.

"The pandemic came as a radical uncertainty... There was no control and there was no information on the way it was going. The case study of India should be seen around the world as a classic whole of nation approach and the manner in which we invoked our National Disaster Management Authority Act of 2005," PTI reported him as saying.

Dark web monitoring, he said, became another area of priority as a lot of cryptocurrency transactions take place through the dark web.

On Thursday, Bitcoin fell from its all-time high struck a day earlier after the debut of the first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund. The world's largest cryptocurrency was down 3.02% at $64,000, at 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, after hitting a record $67,016 on Wednesday.