Maharashtra Launches Cybercrime Facility, Announces Helpline
Maharashtra has established a ‘cyber corporation’ to battle online fraud, and it has extended a similar infrastructure in two other states, said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday.
The facility in Navi Mumbai shall operate as the state’s headquarters for cybercrime. I envision a day when the proportion of crime involving the streets will be 20-30 percent and 70 percent will be crime in the cyber domain. Cyber corporation is India’s best platform which integrates all the crimes of the country’s banks, non banking financial companies and social media. he said at the Mumbai Tech Week 2025 Summit.
Fadnavis didn’t mention which countries reached out to the state of Maharashtra regarding a similar facility, “We have acquired the required licenses and the finest equipment in the world. A dedicated helpline number was procured which is 1945.”
The amount of frauds in the banking sector quadrupled over the last five years to 36,075 in Financial Year 2023-2024 (FY24). According to the annual report of Reserve Bank of India, the amount of elevated digital payment fraud cases such as cards or Internet has increased to 29,082 in FY24 from 2,677 in FY20.
Startups Moving Out of Maharashtra
As stated by Fadnavis, the primary reason that startups have relocated to other cities is due to Mumbai lacking resource facilities in the state from 2014 to try and keep up with the expense of living, which caused Bangalore and Hyderabad to become favorable options.
“It became impossible for the IT-enabled industry to remain in Mumbai, these cities are boons for my inefficient working. But we have strived to change that after 2014,” explained Fadavis.
After taking a break, he came back as the chief minister in 2014, as his second term is in process now. According to him, the state is set to introduce a startup incubator by the name of M-Hub. This is great news, as a lot of infrastructure space is now being built in Navi Mumbai which will put it neck to neck with Bangalore and Hyderabad.