Madhya Pradesh’s New Cybersecurity Centre Lands Amid a Complaint Surge

Madhya Pradesh will build a Cybersecurity Research Centre in Mhow, pairing the state government with the Indian Army’s telecom engineering college to fight a wave of digital fraud. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav announced the plan on June 15 at a state workshop in Bhopal, comparing data protection to guarding the state’s borders.

Police figures released around the same time show a rougher picture. Cybercrime complaints in the state have jumped nearly fivefold since 2021, and the specialised force meant to chase them is still short of its own targets.

MCTE Mhow Becomes Madhya Pradesh’s Cyber Research Partner

The Madhya Pradesh government will build the centre with the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), the Indian Army’s training institution for the Corps of Signals in Mhow, along with unnamed academic partners, Yadav said.

MCTE’s coursework already centers on cyber security, electronic warfare, telecommunication and information technology. In 2025, the college set up a joint Centre of Excellence with the government’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to research quantum computing and cyber security for military use, and separately signed a research partnership with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, a Coimbatore-based university, on cyber defence for the armed forces.

Yadav framed the new plan this way at the workshop:

This mechanism is not merely symbolic; it is a concrete step toward predictive security and continuous vigilance.

Yadav, the chief minister, told the gathering, describing the centre’s mandate as research, innovation and skill development.

The predictive framing lines up with a broader industry shift. OpenAI, for instance, has rolled out Daybreak, its own AI-powered cybersecurity defense product built to catch threats before they land.

Officials point to three systems already running underneath the new push. There is MP-CERT, the state’s computer emergency response team; a Security Operations Centre at the State Data Centre monitoring government networks around the clock; and the secure State Wide Area Network, known as SWAN, linking offices statewide.

Ashish Vashishtha, managing director of the Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation (MPSEDC), told the workshop that more than 1,700 government services are now delivered digitally across the state.

Technical sessions at the same event covered enforcement of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act), the federal law that sets rules for handling personal data.

Why Is Madhya Pradesh Moving on Cybersecurity Now?

Madhya Pradesh’s cybercrime complaints have surged nearly fivefold since 2021, with about 80% tied to financial fraud, matching a national pattern. Indians lost roughly ₹22,495 crore (about $2.7 billion) to online fraud in 2025, a 24% jump in case volume from the year before, according to federal crime figures.

• 28.15 lakh (2.8 million) cybercrime cases were recorded nationwide in 2025, up from 22.68 lakh in 2024.
• Over 75% of India’s cyber-fraud losses in 2025 came from organised investment scams, the fastest-growing category.
• 1,413 e-Zero FIRs had been filed in Madhya Pradesh by May 31, 2026, since the fast-track system launched in December.
• 1,378 cybercrime FIRs were registered in the state in 2025 alone, with 501 more added in the first five months of 2026.

Recovery has improved alongside the case load. Officials say the state’s rate of action on defrauded money climbed from 11% in 2023 to 22% in 2025, and reached 30.55% in the first four months of 2026, a jump they tie to Madhya Pradesh’s move from 22nd to 5th nationally in fund-recovery rankings.

Six Commandos, One Police Station

The workforce behind those numbers is still small. Additional Director General of Police A. Sai Manohar told the same workshop that six Cyber Commandos are currently serving in the state, with 38 more already selected but not yet deployed.

National figures tell a starker story. Data tabled in the Lok Sabha in March, drawing on Bureau of Police Research and Development records current to January 2024, listed Madhya Pradesh with just one dedicated cyber crime police station, against 75 in Uttar Pradesh, 54 in Tamil Nadu and 47 in Maharashtra.

That federal count tracks stations formally designated as cyber crime police stations. It does not capture MP-CERT, district cyber cells or the helpline network that also field complaints.

Police are also piloting what they call a ‘Cyber Tehsil,’ a decentralised model meant to handle cases closer to where complaints originate, according to the same data.

Simhastha 2028 Sets the Real Deadline

Much of the urgency traces to a single date. The Simhastha Kumbh Mela, a mass pilgrimage gathering due to return to Ujjain in 2028, is the internal deadline state police have set for finishing their cyber build-out.

Sai Manohar said all 44 Cyber Commandos are meant to be deployed in the State Cyber Cell before the festival begins, alongside roughly 3,000 engineering students and young volunteers trained as ‘Cyber Warriors’ to help monitor and prevent attacks during the crowds.

The state paired that enforcement plan with a 15-day awareness campaign reaching 50,000 villages, called Safe Click 2.0, running from June 24 to July 8 across all 55 districts.

Britain has taken a different route to the same problem, folding NHS data centres into a cyber resilience law tied to £17 million penalties.

1. December 25, 2025: Madhya Pradesh Police launch the e-Zero FIR system for cyber financial frauds of ₹1 lakh and above.
2. June 15, 2026: Chief Minister Mohan Yadav announces the Cybersecurity Research Centre in Mhow at a workshop in Bhopal.
3. June 24 to July 8, 2026: The state runs its Safe Click 2.0 awareness campaign across more than 50,000 villages.
4. 2028: The Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain becomes the deadline for deploying all 44 Cyber Commandos and thousands of trained Cyber Warriors.

The Centre Has No Address Yet

What officials have not said matters as much as what they have confirmed. No site within Mhow, construction budget or opening date has been made public.

Which academic institutions beyond MCTE will formally join is also still unnamed. And how the centre’s research will mesh with the DPDP Act’s rollout is an open question: the law’s consent-manager rules take effect in November 2026, while its remaining substantive provisions do not bind until May 2027.

Yadav has promised heavy penalties for future lapses and government compensation after breaches. Neither commitment yet comes with a published rulebook.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Mhow, and Why Does the Indian Army Have a College There?

Mhow is a cantonment town in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district that already hosts the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, the Army’s training institution for the Corps of Signals. The college is affiliated with Jawaharlal Nehru University, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya and Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, with coursework centered on cyber security, electronic warfare, telecommunication and information technology, roughly 25 kilometers from Indore city.

What Is Simhastha, and Why Does It Set a 2028 Cyber Deadline?

Simhastha is the name for the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage when it is hosted in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, drawing enormous crowds and heavy phone and payment traffic. It is the reason state police fixed 2028 as the internal deadline for finishing their cyber staffing plans.

How Can Madhya Pradesh Residents Report Cyber Fraud?

Victims can call the national cybercrime helpline, 1930, or file a complaint through the state’s e-Zero FIR system, which currently covers financial frauds of ₹1 lakh and above. Police have said they intend to lower that threshold to ₹50,000 so smaller losses qualify for the same fast-track filing.

What Does the Safe Click 2.0 Campaign Cover?

Safe Click 2.0 is the 15-day public awareness drive that ran from June 24 to July 8 across roughly 50,000 villages in Madhya Pradesh’s 55 districts. Its daily themes rotated through banking security, women’s safety, rural cyber awareness and responsible digital behavior, backed by a travelling awareness chariot and school booklets.

Has MCTE Done Cybersecurity Work Before This Announcement?

Yes. One MCTE team took a runner-up finish at a national cybersecurity hackathon, building an app that teaches users to spot phishing, malware and AI-enabled fraud, and the college’s teams overall placed among the event’s top ten finalists.