67% Drop in ‘Digital Arrests’: Brijesh Singh, Principal Secretary, Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, September 17: "Digital arrests have fallen by 67 per cent," after sustained awareness campaigns, but “if you look at the total volume of cybercrime, the focus has shifted to investment scams,” said Shri Brijesh Singh, Principal Secretary, Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra, at a panel discussion on Agentic AI VS Cyber Crime: Automation on Both Sides and cybersecurity at Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026, held from September 8–11 at Jio World Centre, Mumbai.
Shri Singh noted that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's observations on so called ‘digital arrest’ scams during ‘Mann Ki Baat’ have been instrumental in bringing down such scams. However, he added, “Awareness alone cannot outpace fraud, which keeps adapting and getting complex.”.
Other speakers of the panel were Shri Rajesh Thapar, CISO, NSE India, and Mr Mithilesh Singh, Managing Director, Prottiviti. It was moderated by Mr Viswanath Krishnamurty, CRO, NPCI.
Shri Singh said agentic AI has fundamentally changed cybersecurity. “Attacks once requiring a chain of human collaborators are now executed autonomously, adapting in real time. It's time that the defensive systems also keep pace with such crime,” he added.
Underscoring the importance of cybersecurity, he said that security should be given the same importance as digital public infrastructure. Everybody should make it together, he said, pointing out that the current model, where "everybody is protecting their individual perimeters," cannot counter fraud networks that cut across digital ecosystems, spanning telecom, apps, banking and social media.
Shri Singh also cited the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub's upcoming Digital Payments Intelligence Platform as a step toward continuous, risk-based monitoring, since “even good accounts can turn mules despite clean KYC records at onboarding”.
Shri Singh warned that generative AI has made real-time deepfakes cheap and accessible, with companies losing millions of dollars as fraudsters impersonate on video calls. Such crimes are rising because genuine evidence can be dismissed as AI-generated due to a lack of digital provenance, making prosecution harder even as fraud grows more sophisticated.
Shri Thapar stressed the need for cyber defence to match "machine speed,". “It should be built on the following pillars: anticipate, prevent, withstand and adapt. AI should be your slave and not your master," he said.
Mr Mitlesh Singh added that trust and transparency must remain "non-negotiable" as institutions scale AI adoption.
