New Delhi [India], December 3 : Union Minister of State for Communications, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, on Thursday reiterated the government's stance on the 'Sanchar Saathi' app on mobile handsets, noting that the app is to prevent cyber frauds.
Talking to ANI outside Parliament, the Minister noted that anyone who says it is a snooping app should download the app and have a look for themselves.
"There are only a few ways, where you can prevent the cyber fraud. This is, in my view, this is probably the only way," he said, referring to the Sanchar Saathi app. "Whether we can mandatorily pre-install or not, that's a different story that, government, (Jyotiraditya) Scindia Ji, has just explained that, you know, we will relook into that order," the MoS said.
Noting that cyber attacks are quite sophisticated, the MoS said the Sanchar Saathi app will prevent cyber fraud of "all the vulnerable people, because the goal of the app is to take the information from the educated people, and help the poor people, older people."
He also noted that the Sanchar Saathi app is being worked on in all "vernacular languages."
"We worked hard and if you look at the website, almost 20 crore website hits are coming to this website, Sanchar Sathi. And 1.4 crore people have already downloaded this app," he asserted,
He further said the app is available on both Android and iOS.
"The other important thing that people have to remember is Apple and Google, everyone verified this app before, it's already in the app store. This app is already in the app store. Usually, if it has any other mal-intention, they would not even allow it to be in the app store in the first place," the Minister said.
He reiterated that if people don't want to use it, they can delete it.
"They don't want to pre-install that, we will also look into the order, but the idea of the app is good I request everybody to download it," he said, referring to reports that Apple has opposed the mandatory installation of the app on all mobile handsets manufactured in India or imported into India.
Speaking in Parliament today, Union Minister for Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said, "Neither snooping is possible with the Sanchar Saathi app nor will it ever be. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji is committed to giving the public full control and authority over their security. The success of Sanchar Saathi and its widespread use is the result of the trust and participation of the public."
Minister Scindia added they are "always ready to make necessary improvements in the rules based on the suggestions and feedback received from citizens."
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has recently issued directions requiring manufacturers and importers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on devices sold in India to enhance consumer awareness and curb the circulation of duplicate or tampered IMEIs.
Developed under the Telecom Cyber Security framework, Sanchar Saathi supports users on both Android and iOS platforms, enabling device authenticity verification and reporting suspected fraud.