COMBAT TERRORISM THROUGH CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME

As part of India's growing leadership in the global fight against terror financing, the Department of Revenue, in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs and the National Security Council Secretariat, organized a first-of-its-kind Capacity Building Programme for representatives of the Central Asian Republics (CARs) on "Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) through Cryptocurrencies, Crowdfunding, and Non-Profit Organizations" on 21st-22nd April 2025 in New Delhi.

This initiative reflects India's commitment to international cooperation in combating the financing of terrorism, especially emerging threats through digital means and misuse of social structures. The programme was delivered by technical experts from FATF Cell of the Department of Revenue, Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND), National Investigation Agency (NIA), and Ministry of Home Affairs along with an Expert from EAG, including sessions on:

1. Detection and investigation of virtual asset misuse
2. Typologies on crowdfunding for extremist activities
3. Regulatory and financial intelligence frameworks for monitoring NPOs

It is to be noted that the sharing of expertise with CAR was limited to the April training, and no other sharing of expertise of any kind has been done post-training.

India is sharing technical expertise with Central Asian representatives through various programme. These programmes included hands-on sessions and closed-door consultations on:

1. Financial Intelligence gathering in terrorism related investigations.
2. Emerging risks from misuse of Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)
3. Exploitation of crowd funding platforms.
4. Financing of radicalization and mechanisms for risk profiling of NPOs.
5. Case studies from Indian agencies including the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND), Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the National Investigation Agency (NIA)

Further, customized study materials were also provided to CAR participants for use in their home jurisdictions, tailored to their jurisdictional requirements.

India has proposed cooperation to other regions facing similar challenges such as terror funding in the future. The Department of Revenue, in coordination with MEA is organizing similar thematic capacity-building module for BIMSTEC countries, subject to diplomatic and operational coordination.

India is also member of two regional groups on Combating Financing Terrorism (CFT), i.e. Asian Pacific Group (APG) and Eurasian Group (EAG). India engages in cooperation through these groups from time to time.

This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Shri Nityanand Rai in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

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