Pune, Sep 24: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that Kashmiris have always remained steadfast in their commitment to India despite repeated attempts by neighbouring countries to foment unrest.

“Kashmiris have consistently proved themselves an integral part of the nation. Their contribution in the service of the country is immense. Supporting these efforts, organisations like Sarhad have played a vital role in strengthening this bond. Sarhad has shown that the entire nation stands united with Kashmir,” Pawar said while inaugurating the Vijay Dhar Amphitheatre at the Sarhad Global School and Junior College, Gujarwadi, Pune.

The amphitheatre has been dedicated to eminent Kashmiri educationist and social thinker Vijay Dhar, son of veteran political leader Durga Prasad Dhar. The event was attended by former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Vijay Dhar with his wife Kiran Dhar and daughter Kanika Dhar, Sarhad founder Sanjay Nahar, and several other dignitaries.

Pawar also highlighted Pune’s role in shaping national unity: “Pune has always shown India a new path — in education, industry, IT, and culture. From Lokmanya Tilak to institutions like Sarhad, the city has led the way. Kashmir is India’s crown jewel, and no matter how much unrest is attempted, it will always remain an integral part of our country,” he said.

Shinde recalled his decades-long association with Dhar and praised his contributions to education in the Valley. “His institutions in Kashmir are among the finest. By dedicating this amphitheatre to him, Sarhad has honoured his vision. Sadly, while the situation was largely under control when I was home minister, it has deteriorated again. The recent Pahalgam incident raises difficult questions,” he said.

Expressing gratitude, Vijay Dhar credited Pawar and Sarhad for supporting his educational initiatives in Kashmir. Sarhad founder Sanjay Nahar described the amphitheatre as a symbol of Dhar’s legacy in education and social development.

The programme began with the recitation of the Navkar Mantra by Kashmiri student Ruqayya Maqbool, followed by the state song. Contributors to the Gujarwadi Educational Complex were felicitated, with Leshpal Jawalge delivering the vote of thanks and Neerja Apte conducting the proceedings.

New Delhi, Sep 25: The Central Bureau of Investigation has begun an inquiry into alleged violation of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act against an institution founded by Ladakh-based educationist and activist Sonam Wangchuk, officials said on Thursday.

There has been an inquiry going on for some time but no FIR has been registered yet, they said.

When contacted, Wangchuk told PTI that a CBI team came with “an order” about 10 days ago, saying that they are acting on a complaint from the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding alleged Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) violations in the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL).

“The order said we have not taken clearance under FCRA to receive foreign funds. We don’t want to be dependent on foreign funds, but we export our knowledge and raise revenue. In three such instances, they thought it was foreign contribution,” Wangchuk claimed.

He said a CBI team visited HIAL and the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) last week, seeking details of foreign funds received by them between 2022 and 2024.

The teams are still camping in Ladakh and going through accounts and statements of the organisations, he said.

Wangchuk said the matters the complaint refers to were service agreements with taxes duly paid to the government. They pertained to India exporting knowledge to the United Nations, Swiss University and an Italian organisation, he said.

“It was a very dignified assignment. They saw it and they were convinced. They understood it is not helping them, so they began asking for accounts outside that period. Their mandate was to check for accounts during 2022-24, but they started asking for accounts of 2021 and 2020. Then they went to our school asking for various documents outside their mandate period and a school outside the complaint’s purview,” Wangchuk alleged.

Both these schools give free education to needy young students. In HIAL, students are paid stipend for their work on various projects, he said.

“The CBI officers are still camping in Ladakh and rigorously going through records,” Wangchuk said, adding that they have not questioned him.

The activist said first, the local police filed a sedition case against him. This was followed by an order taking back the land given for HIAL, citing that the lease amount was not paid.

“Everyone knows, we have documents to show. The government had almost been apologetic in saying that their lease policy is not formed and hence it cannot take fee. It said ‘please bear with us and continue constructions’,” he claimed.

Wangchuk alleged that this was followed by the CBI action and income tax summons.

“The funny part is, Ladakh is one place where there is no tax. Yet I voluntarily pay taxes, and I get summons. Then they resurrected a four-year-old complaint that labourers were not paid properly. It is guns blazing from all sides on us,” he alleged.

Wangchuk had started a hunger strike on September 10, pressing for Ladakh’s inclusion in the Sixth schedule and for statehood.

The cold desert region witnessed the worst violence since 1989 on Wednesday, when groups of youths indulged in arson and vandalism, targeting the BJP headquarters and the Hill Council, and set ablaze vehicles.

Police and paramilitary forces had to lob teargas shells to bring the situation under control, officials said.

Bangalore, Sep 25: Indusface, a globally trusted Application Security SaaS provider serving over 5,000 customers in 95 countries, today released its State of Application Security – India H1 2025 Report. The findings reveal a 15% increase in cyberattacks compared to H1 2024, with over 4.26 billion attacks blocked by AppTrana WAAP during the six-month period. Each site faced an average of 4.1 million attacks, underscoring the rising intensity of targeted threats across Indian enterprises.

APIs emerged as the most vulnerable target. API attacks grew by 126% year-on-year, with vulnerability exploitation increasing 13 times and DDoS incidents on API hosts surging 388% per site. In total, more than 1.36 billion API attacks were recorded in H1 2025. In contrast, website attacks rose by 11%, with vulnerability exploits up 26% and DDoS attacks up 15%. AppTrana blocked 62% of all attacks through custom rules tailored to specific applications, while 38% were mitigated by its default rule set, reflecting the growing sophistication of targeted threats.

The report also highlighted the persistence of bot-driven and DDoS activity. Over 1.51 billion DDoS attacks were blocked in the first half of 2025, affecting 70% of monitored sites, while 90% of websites experienced bot attacks, totalling 45.3 million incidents. Attack traffic originated largely from India, followed by the United States, France, Singapore and Germany.

India is now among the top five global sources and targets of application-layer attacks. Attackers are shifting from high-volume disruption to low-and-slow precision exploits, often weaponising zero-days within days of discovery. Nearly 40% of Indian enterprises admitted they lacked resources to respond to continuous vulnerabilities, leaving critical applications exposed for prolonged periods. Alarmingly, one-third of high-severity vulnerabilities in India remained unpatched for more than six months, creating a persistent attack surface.

Sectoral analysis showed sharp increases in cyber threats across industries. Insurance recorded a 309% rise in overall attacks, with DDoS surging 350% and vulnerability exploits increasing tenfold. Manufacturing reported a 311% increase, with DDoS up 427% and vulnerability exploits up 459%. Banking and financial services faced a 14% rise in overall attacks, vulnerability exploitation up 46%, and DDoS incidents spiking 172% during Operation Sindoor, underscoring how geopolitical events intensify sector-specific risks.

Healthcare websites reported a 247% increase in targeted attacks blocked via custom rules, with every monitored site hit by bots. Retail and e-commerce faced a 420% surge in DDoS incidents and 127% higher vulnerability exploitation, alongside bot-driven carding and credential abuse. Small and mid-sized businesses were disproportionately affected, facing 202% more website attacks, 74 times more API attacks and 121 times higher API DDoS incidents compared to large enterprises.

“Vulnerability attacks, especially on APIs, have surged 13x compared to last year. APIs are now one of the biggest risk surfaces for enterprises because of extensive third-party integrations and the sensitive data flows they enable. Through our exploit analytics, we’ve given enterprises unmatched visibility into these attacks and blocked them instantly using autonomous vulnerability remediation.” Said Ashish Tandon, Founder & CEO, Indusface.

“Most importantly, AI helped us shrink the mean time to remediate (MTTR) from months to days. We’ve already helped customers generate thousands of zero-vulnerability reports, with an average turnaround of just 12 hours. That is a game-changer when you consider that hackers weaponize new vulnerabilities in under 48 hours, particularly for critical CVEs. With Indusface, customers can stay not just compliant, but a step ahead.” Added, Ashish.

Indusface’s ROI Analysis of Managed WAAP demonstrated measurable business value for Indian enterprises. Indian enterprises gained annual value of up to ₹21 lakhs just in operational savings. Key benefits included improved vulnerability remediation cycles,minimized reliance on internal teams; continuous DDoS and bot mitigation reduced outage-related losses; and avoided penalties and reputational damage associated with non-compliance and breaches.

The study further estimated that DDoS monitoring cost avoidance alone delivered savings of up to 40% compared to traditional in-house monitoring and incident response frameworks, highlighting how managed WAAP services can be a cost-efficient alternative.

The report revealed 18,000 critical and high-severity vulnerabilities across applications in India in H1 2025, with one-third of these left open for over six months. AppTrana immediately mitigated all attempts to exploit these open vulnerabilities through virtual patching. Zero-day vulnerabilities also climbed steeply, with 3,508 detected in the first half of 2025 compared to 1,265 a year earlier. AppTrana customers benefited from 100% protection against these zero-days, with 98% covered by default rules and the remainder secured by custom mitigations.

With regulators such as SEBI and RBI intensifying their scrutiny, the report emphasizes that faster vulnerability detection, real-time patching and continuous monitoring will be vital. For resource-constrained SMEs, managed WAAP solutions with AI-driven bot mitigation, adaptive DDoS defense and automated vulnerability management will be essential to withstand the rising tide of application-layer threats.

For more insights and to download the full State of Application Security – India H1 2025 Report, visit www.indusface.com

About Indusface:

Indusface is a leading application security SaaS company that secures critical Web, Mobile, and API applications of 5000+ global customers using its award-winning fully managed platform that integrates web application scanner, web application firewall, DDoS & BOT Mitigation, CDN, and threat intelligence engine.

Indusface, an institutionally funded firm, is the only vendor to receive 100% customer recommendation rating four years in a row and is a global customer choice in the 2024 Gartner Peer Insights™ Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) Report. Indusface is also a “Great Place to Work” 2024 certified and is PCI, ISO27001, SOC 2, and GDPR certified and has been the recipient of many prestigious start-up awards.