Sanchar Saathi mandate gone, focus must shift to solutions to fight spam

Facing political heat and tech giant resistance, DoT reverses app mandate; cybersecurity solution needs broader stakeholder consultation

Breach of cybersecurity — carried out in multiple ways and forms — has been a reality for more than two decades in India and no solution has been good enough so far. Even the latest government diktat to handset makers, asking them to install or rather pre-install Sanchar Saathi, which is an app meant to combat fraud, on smartphones will remain just an idea. In less than a week of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) order being sent to handset makers, including Apple and Samsung, and after much noise in Parliament and TV studios, the mandate has been