Government removes the mandate for Sanchar Saathi

The government has withdrawn its directive to mandatorily pre-install Sanchar Saathi cyber safety app in every smartphone sold in India, after facing backlash from technology and handset makers.

"Given Sanchar Saathi’s increasing acceptance, Government has decided not to make the pre- installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers," the Department of Telecommunications said in a release.

The government said that so far 1.4 crore users have downloaded the app and are contributing to information on 2000 fraud incidents per day.

"The number of users has been increasing rapidly and the mandate to install the app was meant to accelerate this process and make the app available to less aware citizens easily," the government said.

In last one day, 6 lakh citizens have registered for downloading the app which is a 10x increase in its uptake, it said.

"This is affirmation of faith by citizens on this App for protecting themselves provided to them by the Government," DoT said.

A November 28 order by the DoT mandating every smartphone brand to pre-install the government's Sanchar Saathi app — which is used to report fraud, curb unsolicited commercial calls, and verify SIM cards — on all new handsets manufactured or imported for use in India, and the deployment of the app via software updates on existing inventory, giving companies a 90-day window to comply.

This led to a strong pushback by citizens and opposition leaders.

The withdrawal comes a day after the Union Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said users have the option to uninstall the app.