Overview
- India’s Ministry of Telecommunications on Wednesday revoked its order requiring Sanchar Saathi to be preinstalled on new phones.
- The scrapped directive, issued Monday, had set a 90‑day timeline for preinstallation, barred disabling core functions, and sought rollout to older devices with a 120‑day compliance report.
- The ministry said the app remains voluntary, emphasized that users can delete it, and reported 600,000 new registrations in the past day with at least 14 million total downloads.
- Opposition parties and digital‑rights groups had condemned the mandate as a threat to privacy and user consent, likening it to state surveillance.
- Manufacturers had raised implementation and policy conflicts, with Apple previously indicating it would not comply with compulsory preinstallation.