After Backlash, India Rolls Back Mandatory Pre-loading Of Sanchar Saathi App The government said it had decided not to make the pre- installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers given Sanchar Saathi's increasing acceptance

After a backlash, the government has decided to roll back mandatory pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi App.

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

Earlier, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia had said that users will have the choice to delete the Sanchar Saathi app from their smartphones. Responding to a query in the Parliament, Scindia said (loosely translated from Hindi) that India now has more than 1 billion telecom subscribers. Even as people are using telecommunications for constructive purposes, there are some elements using it for malicious purposes. To address this, the government set up the Sanchar Saathi portal in 2023. Based on public participation, the portal became a success with more than 20 crore hits. In 2025, the government launched the Sanchar Saathi app, and has recorded 1.5 crore installs. The directive was to help make the platform available to everyone. However, the government is open to feedback, and also willing to reconsider the decision, based on the feedback.

Separately, in a post, Scindia also disclosed that the Sanchar Saathi platform helped disconnect more than 1.43 crore connections via 'Not My Number feature'. It also helped trace nearly 26 lakh mobile phones of which 7.23 lakh phones were successfully returned to original users. The platform helped disconnect fake 40.96 connections after public reporting. Also, 6.2 lakh fraud-linked IMEIs have been blocked.

What is Sanchar Saathi? And what is the controversy?

The telecom department describes Sanchar Saathi as a citizen-centric tool that "brings robust security features and fraud-reporting capabilities directly to users' smartphones. The app complements the existing Sanchar Saathi portal by providing convenient, on-the-go protection against identity theft, forged KYC, device theft, banking fraud, and other cyber risks."

Last week, the Department of Telecommunications ordered mobile manufacturers and importers to facilitate the availability and accessibility of the Sanchar Saathi app on devices for users in India.

According to reports, the Indian government had asked companies such as Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi to pre-install the app within 90 days. Reports also said that Apple was unlikely to oblige to the diktat from the government.

Entrepreneur India has reached out to Google and Apple for more information.

The directive, as expected, created a wide outrage with privacy advocates raising concerns over the government overreach and possibilities of government snooping. The move also met criticism from the key opposition leaders who have also demanded rolling back the directive. Though, the government has denied the charges of possible snooping.

Technology lawyer and SFLC founder Mishi Choudhary welcomed Scinidia's clarification but also criticised that arbitrary policy decisions without any analysis of what effectively works to curb frauds is concerning.

"The Government has no business being in citizens' lives and their phones. While this may have been rolled back, SIM binding mandate is still a major concern that will make citizens lives harder. A very bad architectural decision that will not solve the problem. If DoT is serious about solving the issue, it should address major fraud vectors such as social engineering like phishing, smishing, remote access apps SIM swap, mule bank account, fake loan apps, crossborder call centers. These require financial network controls, not a phone side app," she told Entrepreneur India.

Moreover, Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights organization, in an elaborated post said that the problems deepen when we look at the scope and safeguards. The order invokes "telecom cyber security" as a catch all justification, but it does not define the functional perimeter of the app. Clause 5 of the Directions refers to identifying acts that "endanger telecom cyber security," an expression so vague that it invites function creep as a design feature, not a bug. Today, the app may be framed as a benign IMEI checker. Tomorrow, through a server side update, it could be repurposed for client side scanning for "banned" applications, flag VPN usage, correlate SIM activity, or trawl SMS logs in the name of fraud detection.

"Nothing in the order constrains these possibilities. In effect, the state is asking every smartphone user in India to accept an open ended, updatable surveillance capability on their primary personal device, and to do so without the basic guardrails that a constitutional democracy should insist on as a matter of course. IFF is deeply concerned with this direction that sets up a precedent to enforce client side scanning on all smartphones in India and calls for its recall," the post read.

Double whammy with SIM-binding diktat

This also comes after the telecom department created another stir with its SIM binding order. According to the Telecommunication Cybersecurity Amendment Rules, 2025, a new category called Telecom Identifier User Entities (TIUEs which will need to work only when the SIM is on the device and also periodic logouts for web sessions (for apps like WhatsApp). The move itself has thrown a curveball for messaging platforms to follow a new compliance.

"Social media giants and major digital platforms face immense regulatory pressure to restore user trust; our strategic planning assumption forecasts that over 50% of major platforms will integrate content authentication to automatically flag unverified content by 2028, up from less than 5% in 2025. Expanding SIM-binding beyond messaging apps to other digital services can strengthen identity assurance and reduce fraud, but it must be implemented with robust privacy safeguards, interoperability, and user-centric design. and recommends deploying "AI-powered Verified Comms Shields— multilayer defense to AI threats." This means the best implementation will combine real-time verification MFA, privacy-enhancing technologies, and adaptive consent management, ensuring security without sacrificing user experience," Apeksha Kaushik, Principal Analyst at Gartner tells Entrepreneur India.

Security risks are reduced by effectively targeting the adversary's ability to create and weaponize fake identities and automated networks at scale, denying them the core vector for influence operations. By requiring verification methods such as SIM binding, the government is targeting the "who" (identity) and "how" (amplification) elements of AI-driven disinformation campaigns. Malicious actors frequently leverage Generative AI to "farm" legions of legitimate-looking accounts for "influence-as-a-service" schemes, which are then used to spread false narratives, according to the analyst.

"Traditional defenses are overwhelmed by the volume and velocity of AI-generated content. Enforcing a traceable, verified human link through SIM binding makes it significantly harder to create synthetic identities for account takeover attempts and reduces the effectiveness of automated amplification by bots," Kaushik added.

But not everyone opposed the SIM-binding move.

COAI, which represents telecom service providers like Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, noted that presently, app-based communication services link to a subscriber's mobile SIM card only once during initial installation and verification.

"Thereafter, these applications continue to function even if the SIM is removed, replaced or deactivated - creating significant scope for fraud. The new directive mandates that all relevant communication apps ensure continuous linkage between the application and the SIM/phone number used for registration, thereby creating a more accountable digital environment by curbing anonymous misuse and protecting users in the online space," COAI added.

What's next

It's a welcome decision by the government to roll back the directive for mandatory installation of the app. However, it's worth noting that the government is positioning the app as a tool to help secure citizens and combat fraud related to telecom, such as misuse of stolen devices, fake SIM connections, and so on. The platform has also seen fair success with public participation. Though, the concerns such as government overreach and risk of state surveillance are fair given the precedent of the usage of technology for snooping on individuals around the world.