New Delhi [India], July 22 : The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) hosted a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) here on Tuesday to advance coordinated measures against spam, fraud, and the misuse of telecom infrastructure, according to an official release.
Representatives from RBI, SEBI, IRDAl, PFRDA and MeitY convened at TRAI headquarters, joined by officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
"In an increasingly digitalised world, cross-sectoral collaboration among regulators is crucial for coordinated enablement of services and protection of consumers from harm. In a digital-first economy, collaboration among financial sector regulators, digital communication regulators and security agencies becomes paramount. TRAI appreciates the swift collaboration being facilitated through JCoR in building a reliable and safer communication environment," said TRAI Chairman, Anil Kumar Lahoti.
As per the telecom regulator, the forum focused on rolling out collaborative regulatory measures, especially in light of rising digital payment linked frauds.
Key Outcomes were urgent transition to 1600-Series for Commercial Calls Regulators, discussed setting up timelines for migration to the dedicated 1600-number series for transactional and service calls in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors. Considering different scales of operation of entities, it was agreed that migration may be made in a phased manner based on the inputs provided by the sectoral regulators to TRAI.
TRAI said that pilot on Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) has been launched which aims to enhance consumer control over commercial communications by replacing unverifiable, offline consents for commercial communication with a secure digital consent framework. The new mechanism will enable the consumers to digitally register, review, and revoke consents through a simple, unified and tamper-proof interface.
Coordinated by TRAI and RBI, the pilot includes telecom service providers (TSPs) and major banks such as SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Four dedicated working groups will oversee technical, operational, and awareness-building aspects of the pilot.
The telecom regulator added that the committee discussed the requirement of automated exchange of spam and cyber fraud data between Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Digital Intelligence Platform of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and DLT platform maintained by the access providers. This will enable swift action against the telecom resources of the fraudsters -such as number disconnection- so as to prevent them from carrying out further frauds.
The Committee flagged the misuse of SIP and PRI telecom lines for bulk spam. Options under discussion include issuing these lines from a designated number range and imposing additional safeguards to ensure responsible use.
Prior to the meeting of the JCOR, a day-long workshop was conducted on July 21 jointly by the TRAI and RBI, on the DCA pilot in which telecom service providers and banks viz SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank participated. Various issues related to digital consent acquisition were deliberated, and all participants agreed to work together in a sustained manner to move forward.