NEW DELHI: The budgetary allocation in the vote-on-account for 2014-15 for convergence, communications and strategic electronics in the Communications and Information Technology Ministry has gone up to Rs 27 crore.

In the interim budget (vote-on-account) for 2014-15 presented in Parliament for the first four months of the new year 2014-15 in view of the general elections later this year, the amount set aside in this sector which includes broadband and broadcast convergence has gone up from Rs 15.75 crore in the revised estimates but is marginally lower than the budgetary allocation of Rs 28 crore in the 2013-14 budget.

An explanatory note says this includes supporting research and development in convergence communications, broadband technologies and strategic electronics. The indigenous efforts are aimed at facilitating developments in emerging, next generation convergence communication, broadband, broadcast and strategic technologies for inclusive and sustainable growth in the country.

In addition, there is budgetary allocation of Rs 7 crore for Media Lab Asia, which is far less than the revised estimates of Rs 12.75 crore for 2013-14. Media Lab Asia is a Section 25 company aimed at bringing the benefits of the most advanced information and communication technologies to the common man and the needy people.

Keeping in view large-scale incidents of hacking or damaging websites, the budget for cyber security has gone up three times from Rs 36.87 crore in the revised estimates for 2013-14 to Rs 114 crore.

The explanatory note says that cyber security is gaining adoption in all types of products for a variety of reasons including national security and appreciation of the consequences of insecurity, and the grants to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-in)