Centre’s Sanchar Saathi Directive Sparks Major Clash with Phone Manufacturers

The Center's directive to mobile phone manufacturers to incorporate the Sanchar Saathi software into all Indian-made or imported phones has sparked a huge political dispute. The Congress and other opposition parties have claimed that this is a step towards state surveillance and have called for the urgent reversal of this course, despite the government's claims that the action can assist in recovering stolen phones and safeguard citizens from cyber fraud.

Features of Sanchar Saathi App

Sanchar Saathi, a Centre digital safety programme, offers a number of citizen-focused services via its website and mobile app. Chakshu, which assists phone users in reporting suspected cyber fraud, is one of these services. Such proactive reporting of suspected fraud communications aids the Department of Telecommunications in preventing the misuse of telecom resources for financial frauds, cybercrimes, and other types of fraud, according to the Sanchar Sathi website.

Users can report commercial spam calls using Chakshu as well. The Sanchar Saathi website claims that Chakshu also makes it possible for users to report fake communications and harmful websites. These include phishing links, efforts to clone devices, and other malware sent over iMessage, RCS, SMS, and social media sites like Telegram and WhatsApp.

Centre’s Direction to Phone Makers

The Sanchar Saathi app must be pre-installed on all mobile phones made or imported in India within 90 days, beginning on November 28, according to a directive from the Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications and is led by Jyotiraditya Scindia.  According to the notification, the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi program should be easily visible and accessible to end users during device setup or first use, and its features should not be limited or disabled.

The phone providers have been ordered to push the app through software updates for phones that have already been produced. The Centre has issued a warning that noncompliance with these directives would result in consequences. The Opposition has responded sharply to the Centre's directive to phonemakers. "Beyond unconstitutional" is how senior Congress leader KC Venugopal described the action.

A Reuters article claims that the government's mandate would lead to conflict with Apple, which has previously resisted such directives due to privacy and security concerns. In the midst of the controversy, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that users are free to remove the Sanchar Sathi app; it is not compulsory.

Reuters' report additionally indicated that the government did not seek the input of phone manufacturers prior to issuing the order. The Sanchar Saathi website claims that the program has assisted in the recovery of 7 lakh phones and blocked 42 lakh stolen phones. According to the website, the software has about 10 lakh iOS downloads and over 1 crore Android downloads.