India Orders Phone Makers To Pre-install Government App To Tackle...

India's telecommunications ministry has ordered major mobile device manufacturers to preload a government-backed cybersecurity app named Sanchar Saathi on all new phones within 90 days.

According to a report from Reuters, the app cannot be deleted or disabled from users' devices.

One of its important features is the ability to report incoming international calls that start with the country code for India (i.e., +91) to facilitate fraud.

"Such international calls are received by illegal telecom setups over the internet from foreign countries and sent to Indian citizens disguised as domestic calls," the government notes on the website. "Reporting about such calls helps the Government to act against illegal telecom exchanges which are causing financial loss to the Government's exchequer and posing a threat to national security."

The Android and iOS apps have been collectively installed over 11.4 million times, with a majority of the installations from the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Since its launch in May 2023, the service has blocked more than 4.2 million lost devices, traced 2.6 million of them, and successfully recovered about 723,638 devices.

The Google Play Store listing for Sanchar Saathi's Android app says it can view network connections, run at startup, control vibration, and request access to the following services -

The November 28, 2025, directive, per Reuters, requires manufacturers to push the app to phones that are already in the supply chain via a software update. The government has framed the app as necessary to tackle threats facing telecom cybersecurity, including spoofed IMEI numbers that can be used to facilitate scams and network misuse.

In a press statement, the Ministry of Communications said the pre-installation is required to safeguard citizens from buying non-genuine handsets and enable easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources. Manufacturers are also required to ensure that the application is readily visible and accessible to end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted.

"Mobile handsets bearing duplicate or spoofed IMEI pose serious endangerment to telecom cybersecurity," the Ministry added. "Spoofed/Tampered IMEIs in telecom networks lead to situations where the same IMEI is working in different devices at different places simultaneously and pose challenges in action against such IMEIs."

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Source: The Hacker News