Security Issues in Uttar Pradesh · UPPCS (Uttar Pradesh)

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, General Studies V:
Issues Related to Security in UP:
(i) Linkage between development and spread of extremism.
(ii) Role of External, State and Interstate actors in creating challenges to internal security through communication networks, media and social networking sites.
(iii) Basic rules of cyber security, money-laundering and its prevention.
(iv) Various security forces and agencies and their mandate.
(v) Security challenges and their management in border areas, linkage of organized crimes with terrorism.

Topics in detail

(i) Development and the spread of extremism

Why under-development feeds extremism: poverty, landlessness, displacement, weak services, alienation
Left-wing extremism in the past in the southern districts (Sonbhadra, Chandauli, Mirzapur), near the borders of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
The response: policing combined with roads, schools, health centres, forest rights and livelihoods
Aspirational Districts Programme, which includes some of these districts
Radicalisation and communal tension as a security issue; role of community policing and peace committees

(ii) Threats through communication networks and media

External actors: hostile foreign agencies, terror groups and their online propaganda
State and inter-state actors: organised gangs working across state lines; criminals using other states as hideouts
Fake news, rumours and doctored videos that spark violence; deepfakes
Recruitment and radicalisation through social media and encrypted apps
Legal tools: Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (blocking), the IT Rules, 2021
Responses: social media monitoring cells of the police, quick fact-checks, public awareness

(iii) Cyber security and money laundering

Basic rules of cyber security: strong passwords, two-factor authentication, updates, not sharing OTPs, checking links, backups
Common cyber crimes: phishing, vishing, OTP and UPI fraud, sextortion, fake loan apps, identity theft, ransomware
Law: Information Technology Act, 2000 (Sections 66, 66C, 66D, 67), the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
Institutions: CERT-In, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, the national cybercrime portal and helpline 1930, cyber police stations in UP
Money laundering: placement, layering, integration; hawala; shell companies; mule bank accounts
Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002; the Enforcement Directorate; the Financial Intelligence Unit-India; FATF standards
Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act and the attachment of property of criminals

(iv) Security forces and agencies

UP Police: civil police, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), Government Railway Police, Fire Service
Special units: Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), Special Task Force (STF), UP Special Security Force
Home Guards and the Prantiya Rakshak Dal
Central forces in UP: Sashastra Seema Bal (Nepal border), CRPF and its Rapid Action Force, CISF (airports, industrial units), Railway Protection Force
Intelligence and investigation: Intelligence Bureau, the state intelligence department, National Investigation Agency, CBI
Armed forces' presence: the Army's Central Command at Lucknow, the Air Force's Central Air Command at Prayagraj

(v) Border areas, organised crime and terrorism

The open border with Nepal along seven districts: Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj
Open-border system under the India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1950
Challenges: smuggling of goods and drugs, fake currency, arms, human trafficking, misuse by criminals and terror suspects
Management: the Sashastra Seema Bal, border outposts, integrated check posts, joint coordination with Nepal, border area development
Organised crime in UP: land, sand-mining and liquor mafias, contract killings, extortion, cyber-fraud gangs
Links with terrorism: funding through fake currency, hawala and smuggling; shelter and logistics
Laws: the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986; the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967; the NDPS Act, 1985

Overlaps

International and internal security, extremism, cyber security and security forces: General Studies III.
Policing and civil defence in UP: Law and Order and Civil Defence.