Evaluate the role of specialised capacity-building institutions in closing the cyber-skills gap in India's financial sector.

Reported digital payment frauds in India rose from 2.6 lakh in 2021 to 28 lakh in 2025 [1]. The RBI's Cybersecurity Training Institute in Bhubaneswar, inaugurated in October 2026 [2], shows that institutions can build skills. On their own, though, they cannot close the gap.

Role and strengths

• Builds in-house expertise: the PM said outdated training tools should give way to skilled human resources [2]. The institute is meant to serve the wider financial sector, not only the RBI [3].
• Reduces vendor dependence: 93% of major banks and NBFCs surveyed rely on outside vendors for SOC monitoring and incident response. A few providers serve many lenders, so one breach can spread across the system [4]. Trained in-house staff reduce this risk.
• Equips leadership: the 2016 framework requires a Board-approved cyber policy, a Security Operations Centre and awareness programmes for the Board [5]. In 2025 the Finance Minister asked banks to name dedicated senior officials for cyber matters [6]. These roles need trained people to fill them.
• Adds to audits: CERT-In carried out 7,547 BFSI audits in 2024–25 [7]. An audit checks a system on one date. Trained staff monitor it every day.

Limitations

• Customers are the weak point: most frauds are Authorised Push Payment (APP) frauds, where victims are tricked into paying. Senior citizens are especially affected [1]. Training bank staff does not protect customers who are being deceived.
• Coverage gaps: the 2016 framework excluded Regional Rural Banks [5], though they serve many first-time rural account holders.
• Overconfidence: 98% of surveyed entities rated their own cyber risk as low to moderate [4]. This weakens demand for training.
• Scale: one institute cannot train staff across the whole sector. It must work alongside tools like Mulehunter.AI, which helps banks find mule accounts [1].

Specialised institutions are therefore necessary but not sufficient. They strengthen the defenders but leave customers exposed. They would do more by putting staff of RRBs and co-operative banks first, adding customer digital-literacy programmes and linking their work to RBI's fraud-prevention platforms. That would help make banking "efficient and reliable" [2] and support the goal of resilient infrastructure under SDG 9.