India will host the fifth Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) in 2017

India will be hosting the fifth Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) in 2017. This is one of the world’s largest conferences on cyber security and related cyber space issues. The formal handing over the GCCS was done by H.E. Mr Alphonsus Stoelinga, Ambassador of Netherlands to Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister of Electronics and IT, India. The conference will see participation from senior Government delegations, industry leaders, academia and civil society from over 100 countries. GCCS will congregate and deliberate on issues relating to promotion of cooperation in cyberspace, norms for responsible behavior in cyberspace and to enhance cyber capacity building. Many of these delegations will be headed at Ministerial levels thereby making it an important forum of global consultation of various issues of cyber space.

The invitation to India for hosting the 2017 GCCS is a global recognition of the country as an influential player in global cyber space.

GCCS is a major international conference, which has been held since 2011. The previous conferences were held in London, UK (2011), Budapest, Hungary (2012), Seoul, South Korea (2013) and The Hague, The Netherlands (2015). Nearly 100 countries and most major international organizations participated in GCCS 2015.

GCCS, 2017 will be an opportunity to showcase the “Digital India” program as a positive, sustainable and scalable model for use of ICTs for addressing developmental challenges and growth opportunities. It can help provide vision of inclusive digital society for inclusive growth, education, healthcare especially for the developing world. It will provide tremendous opportunity for exposure to our industry, civil society and academia, also to connect with their global counterparts and participate more actively in various issues faced by cyber space and provide solutions to deal with these challenges.

GCCS 2017 would also provide India with an opportunity to take leadership on areas that matter critically to developing countries, both in the political and strategic sense.