On May 6th, 2025, industry leaders, government officials, and cyber security experts gathered at the Taj Mansingh in New Delhi for ‘Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructure 2.0: U.S.-India Partnership.’ Organized by AMCHAM, this high-level forum addressed urgent challenges in securing critical infrastructure, digital payment systems, and hardware foundations in an increasingly interconnected world. The inaugural session commenced with welcome remarks by Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, followed by opening remarks by Mr. Salil Gupte, Chairman, AMCHAM and President, Boeing India & South Asia and Mr. Varun Sakhuja, Director of Government Affairs for South Asia, Mastercard. Mr. Harish Krishnan, Managing Director & Chief Policy Officer, Cisco Systems India & SAARC, set the stage with an insightful overview of the cyber security landscape, highlighting emerging threats and opportunities for collaboration between the United States and India. Lt Gen M.U. Nair, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Government of India, delivered a compelling keynote address emphasizing the critical importance of robust cyber security measures for national security and economic stability. Mr. Anil Nair, Vice President, Engineering – Security Business Group, Cisco provided an industry perspective, showcasing how technology leaders are addressing evolving cyber threats through innovation and strategic partnerships.

Session 1: Strengthening Digital Payment Cyber Security: Tackling Vulnerabilities in Card Systems and Cross-Border Transactions

With cross-border payments projected to reach $100 billion by 2026, experts discussed emerging threats to card-based transactions and strategies to counter them during the first session, which began with a keynote address by Mr. Sameer Shukla, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Ms. Smita Bharti, Scientist C, Digital Economy Division, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Government of India, provided a special address on the government’s initiatives to enhance payment security, setting the stage for an in-depth panel discussion featuring speakers Mr. Gautam Kapoor, Managing Director & Lead – Cyber Security, Accenture in India, Mr. Bhishm Narayan Sharma, Senior Cyber Security Architect, Cisco India, Ms. Hiral Sharma, Head, Solution Architecting – Public Sector, India & SAARC, Fortinet, Mr. Joy Sekhri, Vice President & Head, Security Solutions, South Asia, Mastercard and Mr. Mandar Kulkarni, National Security Officer – India and South Asia, Microsoft (as moderator). Key session insights included:

• Advanced Authentication Methods: Mastercard, Microsoft, and Fortinet explored next-generation biometrics, device fingerprinting, and behavioral analytics as critical defenses against identity theft and account takeover attempts.
• AI-Driven Fraud Detection: Mastercard demonstrated how systems that identify suspicious patterns in real-time are becoming essential for transaction security, potentially reducing fraud losses by up to 60%.
• Cloud-Based Security Solutions: Microsoft detailed scalable protections that minimize data exposure through secure tokenization while ensuring transaction integrity across borders.
• Cross-Border Compliance: Accenture discussed how balancing innovation with regulatory requirements across different jurisdictions remains a significant challenge for financial institutions

Session 2: Critical Infrastructure: Enhancing Cyber Security with AI Integration

Responding to the 51% surge in cyber-attacks targeting critical sectors in 2023, the second session examined innovative approaches to securing essential systems. Col Surender Kumar Rohilla, Standard Development Authority, Directorate of Standardisation, Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Government of India and Col Pradeep Bhat (Retd), Former National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) provided valuable context on government initiatives and regulatory frameworks. The panel with Mr. M.A.K.P. Singh, Visiting Professor of Practice in Computer Science and Engineering Department, IIT Kanpur, Mr. Bhanupreet Saini, Public Policy Leader for Public Sector and Cyber Security, Amazon Web Services India, Mr. Pankaj Verma, Security & Trust Officer, Cisco India, Mr. Pradeep Kirnapure, VP and Head of the AI, Cloud and Applications, CoE, Hughes Systique, Mr. Nitendra Rajput, Senior Vice President and Head of AI Garage, Mastercard with moderation by Cdr Sanjeev Singh (Retd), Partner – Cyber Defense and Resilience, Deloitte, explored: 

• AI-Powered Defense Systems: Mastercard explained how artificial intelligence enhances threat intelligence and enables proactive security measures by processing vast amounts of data to identify patterns invisible to human analysts.
• Zero-Trust Architectures: Cisco detailed implementing frameworks that verify every access request regardless of source, location, or network, representing a fundamental shift from traditional perimeter-based security.
• Subsea Cable Protection: AWS highlighted strategies to safeguard the backbone infrastructure connecting global data centers, noting that over 95% of international data traffic travels through these vulnerable underwater networks.
• Operational Technology Security: Hughes Systique addressed the unique challenges of securing operational technology environments, where legacy systems often lack modern security features but must remain operational for decades.

Session 3: Uniformity of Cyber Security Regulations Across Multiple Agencies 

India’s fragmented regulatory landscape creates significant challenges for organizations navigating disparate guidelines from multiple authorities. This critical session featured speakers Ms. Anita Kumar, Senior Manager – Government Affairs, Cisco Systems India, Ms. Dipakshi Mehandru, Director – Government Affairs, Intel India, Mr. Abhishek Lahiri, Vice President & Head of Government Affairs, India & South Asia, Mastercard, Mr. John Khiangte, Director, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Microsoft and Mr. Binu George, Head of Government Affairs for India & Southeast Asia, Fortinet (as moderator). Key points included: 

• Unified Framework Vision: Cisco and Microsoft proposed creating a coherent national cyber security framework that aligns with global standards while addressing India’s unique challenges.
• Streamlined Compliance: Mastercard emphasized reducing administrative burdens so CISOs can focus on combating threats rather than navigating regulatory complexity, estimating that organizations spend up to 40% of security resources on compliance alone.
• Cross-Border Collaboration: Intel discussed enhancing U.S.-India cooperation to support innovation and digital trade, highlighting successful models from other regions.
• Industry Self-Regulation: The panel explored how industry consortia could complement government regulations to establish best practices that evolve with technological advancements.

Session 4: Security by Design: Global Cyber Security Innovations in Hardware 

The conference culminated with an exploration of embedding security directly into semiconductor components, featuring a special address from Dr. Sanjay Bahl, Director General, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, who outlined CERT-In’s comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, emphasizing the balance between proactive and reactive measures, emphasizing that one will logically not deploy anything until and unless its been tested. He highlighted the importance of standards and regular audits to pre-empt vulnerabilities. He stressed that proactive strategies are foundational, starting with rigorous testing and quality assurance before deploying any system. These measures, he argued, form the bedrock of a secure ecosystem, reducing the need for reactive interventions like incident response. 

In his special address, Dr. Vivek Kumar Singh, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog, Government of India delivered a compelling analysis of quantum computing’s transformative impact on cyber security. He noted that most encryption-based algorithms work because the compute required to break them is huge. With quantum, that time will be significantly lower. He emphasized that scaling up key sizes won’t be sufficient — a fundamental rethinking of encryption standards is necessary. Dr. Singh outlined several key considerations:

• Encryption Vulnerabilities: Traditional cryptographic methods based on mathematical complexity will be vulnerable to quantum algorithms like Shor’s algorithm.
• Quantum Communication: Beyond encryption, quantum technologies offer new secure communication channels that could revolutionize data transfer, particularly in space applications.
• Talent Gap: While acknowledging India’s impressive talent pool, he noted the country’s lack of domestic intellectual property in this critical domain.
• Global Competition: With a large part of Silicon Valley being Indian brains, the IP is not in India, he observed, highlighting a structural challenge as quantum represents a level playing field globally.

Industry speakers in the panel included Dr. Hemang Shah, Sr. Director, Government Affairs, Applied Materials India, Mr. Kaarthik Sivakumar, Principal Engineer, Cisco India and Mr. Arvind Chandrasekar, Senior Director, Government Affairs & Public Policy, AMD Inc. as moderator. Dr. Hemang Shah highlighted vulnerabilities in semiconductor manufacturing: complex ecosystem risks, backdoor vulnerabilities, industry standards, supplier management and hardware root of trust. Mr. Kaarthik Sivakumar provided technical insights into hardware-based security: beyond software security, core functions, chain of trust, implementation challenges and real-world vulnerabilities. Mr. Arvind Chandrasekar enriched the discussion with real-world examples illustrating the evolving threat landscape such as mobile ecosystem risks, shifting threat vectors (80% of India’s mobile phones rely on potentially vulnerable supply chains) and unexpected attack surfaces. A recurring theme throughout the conference was the need for strengthened U.S.-India cooperation to bridge the gap between intellectual property and practical applications. Academic-industry partnerships and collaborative ecosystems to elevate India’s supplier base in the semiconductor industry were also discussed. The event concluded with a forward-looking discussion on post-quantum cryptography challenges, triggered by an insightful question from the Ministry of Defense regarding the feasibility of migrating to post-quantum cryptography standards.

The event was supported by the following partners: Cyber Security Partner – Mastercard, Network Security Partner – Cisco, Secure Cloud Partner – AWS and Semicon Design Partner – AMD.