India Sanchar Saathi App Optional

Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia clarified that the Sanchar Saathi mobile app is optional and can be deleted by users, addressing privacy concerns that arose from the India — Department of Telecommunications' directive to pre-install the app on all new mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India. The government maintains that the Sanchar Saathi initiative aims to curb cyber fraud and ensure telecom cybersecurity. Critics, including Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, had called the mandatory pre-installation a 'violation of privacy and a step toward authoritarian governance'. The India — Department of Telecommunications' guidelines, issued on November 28, require mobile manufacturers and importers to ensure the app is visible and accessible to end-users and to push the app through software updates for devices already in sales channels, with a 90-day implementation period.