Where the internet has transformed the way we interact and conduct business, it has also, created boundless opportunities for hackers to conduct Cyber attacks. Cyber attacks are one of the defining security threats of our age and Cyber security a growing priority for business and governments alike.

Cybersecurity or information technology security is the protection of computer systems and networks from the theft of or damage to their hardware, software, or electronic data, as well as from the disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.

In these challenging times, the unprecedented reliance on ICTs to drive society, economy and industry, makes it more important than ever before to secure cyberspace and build confidence among users. While some nations have made important strides in Cybersecurity, others have not made as much progress.

According to the latest report released by United Nations in 2020, India now ranks 10^th in the Global Security Index (GCI). The US topped (1st), followed by the UK (United Kingdom) and Saudi Arabia tied on the second position together. India scored a total of 97.5 points from a possible maximum of 100 points, to make it to the tenth position worldwide and fourth position in the Asia Pacific region. South Korea and Singapore are on top with a score of 98.52, which ranks fourth globally. Other countries at the top of the index include Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia (98.06) at fifth place, Lithuania at sixth, Japan at seventh and Canada, France and India at the subsequent positions.

The GCI is a composite index created, analyzed and published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations, to measure the commitment to Cybersecurity of its 194 member countries to raise Cybersecurity awareness.

India is emerging as a global IT superpower, asserting its digital sovereignty with firm measures to safeguard data privacy and online rights of citizens. Several efforts made in this direction include:

• Formulation of National Cyber Security Strategy 2020 – a framework is being readied to improve Cyber awareness and Cyber Security through stringent audits.

• Personal Data Protection Bill 2018, based on recommendation of Justice B. N. Srikrishna Comittee, to secure citizen’s data.

• National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a nodal agency was instituted for coordination of all cyber security efforts, emergency responses, and crisis management.

• National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) was setup for Protection and resilience of critical information infrastructure.

Challenges to Cyber Security In India:

• India lacks indigenization in hardware as well as software cybersecurity tools. This makes India’s cyberspace vulnerable to cyber attacks motivated by state and non-state actors.

• India doesn’t have an ‘active cyber defense’ like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the US’ Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act.

Growing reliance on digital solutions necessitates ever stronger, yet also accessible and user-friendly, data protection measures. Amid interconnected commerce and communication, cybersecurity risks are increasingly border less, with no single entity or stakeholder able to guarantee the security of the global cyber ecosystem.

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When the Cold War started in the mid-twentieth century, the two world powers – the Soviet Union and US – responded by organising their allies into rival military alliances. The US founded the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and shorter-lived alliances. The Soviet Union founded the Warsaw Pact.
Another response among some underdeveloped countries of the third world was neutrality. This led to emergence of a third bloc which decided not to go into a formal alliance with either of the Cold War era power blocs – USA or USSR.

Drawing on the principles agreed at the Bandung Conference in 1955, the NAM was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia through an initiative of the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru[5] and the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

The purpose of the organization was enumerated by Fidel Castro in his Havana Declaration of 1979 as to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics.
Today Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 developing world states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.

Significance of NAM today

Since the end of the Cold War and the formal end of colonialism, the Non-aligned Movement has been forced to redefine itself and reinvent its purpose in the current world order. A major question has been whether many of its foundational ideologies, principles can be applied to the contemporary issues. The NAM has emphasized its principles of multilateralism, equality and mutual understanding in attempting to become a stronger voice of developing and third world countries as well as an instrument that can be utilized and promote the needs of member countries.

We cannot ignore the role of NAM in recent time. They represent nearly two third of the UN members and comprise 55% of the world population. Many of US and USSR former ally partners have become members of NAM. All these factors indicated the importance and relevance of NAM in post-Cold War era. The NAM is an international platform of developing and under-developing countries. The NAM produce a platform as ‘dialogue table’ for developing world and it has done lot of for united these countries. These countries discuss their mutual problem and find a way to resolve these problems.

The termination of cold war doesn’t mean that an end of world power domination/ hegemony. The NAM is too relevant in present context because the third world countries are being subjected to supremacy and exploitation on all kind of issues from economic to political and cultural. The NAM would be proved a platform of developing countries in bargaining with the developed countries. The NAM countries should tackle problems with coordinative approach.

The Nonalignment platform could play a meaningful role for developing countries. This platform is the common voice of third world countries. It is considered as a positive and constructive movement in across the world. India’s efforts for non-aligned countries has appraised by everyone. Therefore, we can say that Non-aligned agenda has immense important for future.

United Nations Security Council was established in 1945 after the World War II. It is one of the six principal organs of United Nations and is entrusted with ensuring international peace and security, accepting new members to the United Nations and approving changes to its charter. One of the most important responsibilities of ensuring international peace are carried out approving and conducting Peace Keep Operations and International Sanctions as well as military actions through resolutions.

The Security Council consists of fifteen members, five of these are permanent members – USA, UK, Russia, France and China, the remaining 10 members are temporary members that hold their seats on a rotating basis by geographic region. The main difference between the permanent and temporary members is that permanent members enjoy Veto power. Security Council decisions on all substantive matters require the affirmative votes of nine members. A negative vote or “veto” by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal, even if it has received the required votes. This gives the permanent members an undue advantage to run the affairs of United Nations Security Council.

UNSC Reforms

The victors of World War II shaped the United Nations Charter in their national interests, assigning themselves the permanent seats and associated veto power, among themselves. The Geo-political realities of the world have changed significantly since 1945 but the working and structure of Security Council has changed little. There has been clamour for reforms in the structure and working of the UNSC for a long time now. Key issues where reforms are needed include categories of membership, the ‘veto’ held by the permanent members, regional representation and size of the Council.

UN Secretary General Kofi Anan called for reforms to UNSC in 2005, in which two plans were suggested:

• Plan A calls for creating six new permanent members, plus three new nonpermanent members for a total of 24seats in the council.
• Plan B calls for creating eight new seats in a new class of members, who would serve for four years, subject to renewal, plus one non-permanent seat, also for a total of 24.

However, little progress has been made in this direction since any reform of the Security Council would require the agreement of at least two-thirds of UN member states in a vote in the General Assembly, and must be ratified by two thirds of Member States. All of the permanent members of the UNSC (which have veto rights) must also agree.

India’s Stake in UNSC

In its quest for global peace and security, India has played a leadership role in the United Nations General Assembly and in the Security Council. India has been a non-permanent Member of the UN Security Council seven times. India was one of the first countries to raise the issue of apartheid in South Africa at the United Nations and was one of the earliest signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1965.

India’s nuclear doctrine at the United Nations is in consonance with its commitment to achieve global disarmament and maintain international peace and security. India stands for total nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Participation in peace keeping operations is the key element of the credentials required for Permanent Membership in the Security Council. India is also the largest contributor to UN peace keeping operations, having contributed 1, 60,000 troops to 43 of 65 of UN peace keeping operations.

As a founder Member, India views the UN as a forum that could play a crucial role to guarantee and maintain international peace and security. Its quest for strengthening peace and security has not been an easy one with new and emerging challenges. India’s bid for permanent membership of UNSC is backed by four Permanent Members of the Security Council, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States but China maintains ambivalent silent on this issue.

Recently India’s foreign Minister S. Jai Shankar in oreign policy speech at a top US think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said “If you have… a United Nations where the most populous country in the world — may be in 15 years — with the third largest economy is not in the decision making of the United Nations, I grant you, it affects the country concerned. But I would also suggest it affects the United Nations’ credibility,”

Currently has the world’s second-largest population and is the world’s largest liberal democracy. It is also the world’s fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity. India maintains the world’s second-largest active armed force (after China) and is a nuclear-weapon state. Clearly, a seat for India would make the body more representative and democratic. With India as a member, the Council would be a more legitimate and thus a more effective body.

The creation of ASEAN was motivated by a common fear of Communism and a desire for economic development. Main objectives behind ASEAN were:

• Promoting unity among the Southeast nations
• Promoting economic development through formation of single market, free flow of skilled labour and free trade among the member countries.
• To act as a potential stabilizer in Southeast and East Asia.

ASEAN’s purpose is to form a common market similar to the European Union. The ASEAN Economic Community was established in 2015. It is working toward free movement of goods and services, investment and capital, as well as skilled labor. It will also create common standards in agriculture and financial services, intellectual property rights, and consumer protection. These are all necessary to attract foreign direct investment and promote growth.

Importance of ASEAN

At first glance, it might seem like a group of still-developing countries, but, Together, ASEAN’s ten member states form an economic powerhouse. If ASEAN was to be looked at as a single country, with combined GDP of almost 3 Trillion USD it is projected to rank as the fourth largest economy of the world put it ahead of India. ASEAN has dramatically outpaced the rest of the world on growth in GDP per capita since the late 1970s. Income growth has remained strong since 2000, with average annual real gains of more than 5 percent.

ASEAN is also important other than the economic reasons; ASEAN occupies a critical geographic position straddling the sea lanes between the Indian Ocean in the west and the Pacific Ocean in the east.

ASEAN is a diverse group. That diversity extends to culture, language, and religion. Indonesia, for example, is almost 90 percent Muslim, while the Philippines is more than 80 percent Roman Catholic, and Thailand is more than 95 percent Buddhist. The region has the third largest population of the world making it world’s third-largest labor force of more than 600 million people. That’s behind China and India, but ahead of the European Union and the United States.

ASEAN is the fourth-largest exporting region in the world, trailing only the European Union, North America, and China/Hong Kong. It accounts for 7 percent of global exports—and as its member states have developed more sophisticated manufacturing capabilities, their exports have diversified. Export-processing zones, once dominated by China, have been established across ASEAN.

ASEAN Significance for India

Economic Significance

1. 3 Cs–Culture, Connectivity and Commerce–will shape India’s ties with the ASEAN bloc.
2. Connecting India’s North-eastern states with ASEAN.
3. India is part of ASEAN led RCEP which aims to create the world’s largest free trade area with more than a third of the global GDP and commerce.
4. For the first time, bilateral trade between ASEAN and India has crossed US$ 80 billion mark.
5. Singapore has become India’s investment and trading hub in the East.

Security Significance

1. ASEAN occupies a central place in the security architecture of the Indo-Pacific region
2. Maritime cooperation in terms of connectivity, safety and security has gained high attention.
3. India and ASEAN can collaborate to combat terror financing, cyber security threats, tax evasions and many more.
4. India needs ASEAN support in achieving a rules-based regional security architecture.

Geo-Strategic Significance

1. Partnership with ASEAN nations might help India counter the growing presence of Beijing.
2. ASEAN is seen as the most successful regional organisation next only to the EU

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The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization comprising seven Member States lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity. This sub-regional organization came into being on 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration. It constitutes seven Member States: five deriving from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand. Initially, the economic bloc was formed with four Member States with the acronym ‘BIST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Following the inclusion of Myanmar on 22 December 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the Group was renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan at the 6th Ministerial Meeting (February 2004, Thailand), the name of the grouping was changed to ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation’ (BIMSTEC).

The objective of building such an alliance was to harness shared and accelerated growth through mutual cooperation in different areas of common interests by mitigating the onslaught of globalization and by utilizing regional resources and geographical advantages. Unlike many other regional groupings, BIMSTEC is a sector-driven cooperative organization. Starting with six sectors—including trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries—for sectoral cooperation in the late 1997, it expanded to embrace nine more sectors—including agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture, people to people contact and climate change.

The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world. Over one-fifth (22%) of the world’s population live in the seven countries around it, and they have a combined GDP close to $2.7 trillion.

Despite economic challenges, all these seven countries have been able to sustain average annual rates of economic growth between 3.4% and 7.5% from 2012 to 2016. The Bay also has vast untapped natural resources. One-fourth of the world’s traded goods cross the Bay every year.

India and BIMSTEC

India has sought to strengthen the BIMSTEC grouping since then. When India hosted the BRICS Summit in Goa in September 2016, it also invited BIMSTEC leaders for the BRICS regional outreach on that occasion under the rubric of BRICS-BIMSTEC Summit. Another important initiative from Indian government was to invite leaders of BIMSTEC member countries to attend the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of As the region’s largest economy, India has a lot at stake. In the 20th anniversary speech in 2017, Modi said BIMSTEC connects not only South and Southeast Asia, but also the ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. “For India, it is a natural platform to fulfil our key foreign policy priorities of ‘Neighborhood First’ and ‘Act East’,” he said.

As the region’s largest economy, India has a lot at stake. In the 20th anniversary speech in 2017, Modi said BIMSTEC connects not only South and Southeast Asia, but also the ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. “For India, it is a natural platform to fulfil our key foreign policy priorities of ‘Neighborhood First’ and ‘Act East’,” he said.

For New Delhi, one key reason for engagement is in the vast potential that is unlocked with stronger connectivity. Almost 300 million people, or roughly one-quarter of India’s population, live in the four coastal states adjacent to the Bay of Bengal (Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal). And, about 45 million people, who live in landlocked Northeastern states, will have the opportunity to connect via the Bay of Bengal to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand, opening up possibilities in terms of development.

From the strategic perspective, the Bay of Bengal, a funnel to the Malacca straits, has emerged a key theatre for an increasingly assertive China in maintaining its access route to the Indian Ocean. Beijing has undertaken massive drive to finance and develop infrastructure in South and Southeast Asia through the Belt and Road Initiative in almost all BIMSTEC countries, except Bhutan and India.

The Bay of Bengal is the route for about 25 per cent of global trade and has huge untapped resources especially in the energy sector – massive reserve of natural gas, the future of power supply. India’s robust relation with BIMSTEC will give it extra leverage in the Bay of Bengal region over China and other major powers. BIMSTEC now makes an important part of India’s ‘Act East’ policy.

The bloc offers a unique opportunity for BRICS countries to extend and advance their cooperation in ways that meaningfully promote their economic development agendas as well as that of other developing countries.

In the 10 years since its inception, BRICS cooperation has continued to consolidate its foundation and expanded to more areas. It is now a multi-level process led by the Summit, buttressed by meetings of the national Security Advisors， Foreign Ministers and other ministerial meetings, and enriched by pragmatic cooperation in dozens of areas such as economy, trade, finance, business, agriculture, education, health, science and technology, culture, think tanks, and friendship cities. Cooperation mechanisms such as the New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement, Business Council and Think Tank Council have been established. Pragmatic cooperation has gone to greater depth to yield more fruitful results and exerted important influence globally.

BRICS’ first decade has seen each of the members laying down groundwork for cooperation, from identifying areas of convergence on political issues to improving economic ties. The level of engagement between its members, ranging from high-level summit and ministerial meetings to various working groups and conferences, has only deepened over that time.

Today there is a fair degree of cooperation on issues such as trade, infrastructure finance, urbanisation and climate change. Moreover, the five members have made modest progress in people-to-people connections. Platforms such as the BRICS Academic Forum and Business Council have proved to be useful in improving their understanding of each other’s industry, academia and government.

Undoubtedly, the two most notable achievements of the BRICS have been the institutionalization of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement.

The importance of these institutions cannot be understated. For one thing, they mark a shift from political rhetoric to delivering concrete results, alleviating some of the scepticism surrounding the BRICS initiative. More importantly, they represent a partial fulfilment of BRICS’ core raison d’être: to offer credible alternatives to the Atlantic system of global governance.

Thanks to 10 years of development, BRICS has grown into an important platform for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries. BRICS countries come from Asia, Africa, Europe and America and are all members of the G20. Together, they account for 26.46% of world land area, 42.58% of world population, 13.24% of World Bank voting power and 14.91% of IMF quota shares. According to IMF’s estimates, BRICS countries generated 22.53% of the world GDP in 2015, and has contributed more than 50% of world economic growth during the last 10 years. The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) are projected to remain the main drivers of growth in the world economy by 2030.

This association of 5 emerging economies of the world indeed make it the global powerhouse of world economy.

What is G-20?

Group of Twenty or G-20 as it is commonly known, is an international forum that brings together the world’s 20 leading industrialized and emerging economies. The total GDP of the G 20 countries accounts for 85 per cent of world GDP and two-thirds of its population. Membership of the G20 consists of 19 individual countries which include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America plus the European Union (EU). G-20 was founded in 1999 with the aim to discuss policy pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability,[3] the G20 has expanded its agenda since 2008 and heads of government or heads of state, as well as finance ministers and foreign ministers, have periodically conferred at summits ever since.

India’s increasing Role in G-20

India has emerged as an important member of G20—able to contribute and influence the reshaping of the world economic and financial order. India has been doing well on the world stage since Prime Minister Modi came into power in 2014. The subsequent G-20 Summits have marked continuous growth in India’s participation.
India has been on reform spree under the Modi Government. The introduction of GST and other such measures have been welcomed by the international community as right steps towards increasing financial stability, ease of doing business and a better standing in the world economy. Several bilateral interactions with world leaders during the Summit is seen as a step forward in improving international relations with aim to further boost economic relations of India with other countries.

India’s economic rise and its ability to manage diverse and at times even contradictory global relationships has given New Delhi newfound leverage in its diplomatic engagements through G 20. One of the prime examples was Modi pulling off two seemingly contradictory trilateral during the Summit. Modi met with United States President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to underscore India’s firm commitment to make the Indo-Pacific a region for shared economic growth, prosperity, and security.Hours after,Modi joined Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for another trilateral, the second among the three countries after a gap of 12 years. The underlying rationale for this trilateral was quite different, as the three nations discussed enhancing mutual cooperation in international forums.

Other important developments which demonstrate India’s growing influence and participation in G-20 forum are its holding the 2022 Summit in India. Also, India will chair the G-20 in 2019.

The G20 process is about balancing competing interests and setting global rules of economic engagement. Born in the crucible of the 2008 global economic crisis, the G20’s agenda has moved beyond crisis management to enhanced global macroeconomic coordination to create a new equilibrium and resilience in global economy. In the scrambled alphabet of global geopolitics, the G20 finally seems to be getting the script right.

Across the summits, India, Asia’s third largest economy, has emerged as a fine balancer, delicately blending its national interests with the imperatives of global economic integration. With upbeat projections about India’s economic growth in the years come, expect India to contribute substantially to global economic growth and be a more proactive player in shaping the G20 process. Against the backdrop of an uneven global economic growth, marked by stark asymmetries across geographies it makes sense for the world to be on the side of the India story and global economic resurgence.