Modi Govt Orders Installation of Unremovable Sarkari Tracking App in Every Smartphone; Hindu Residents in Meerut Protest Sale of Home to Muslim; Winter Parliament Session Starts

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Snapshot of the day

Siddharth Varadarajan

December 1, 2025

The Ministry of Communications has directed smartphone makers to pre-install a government-owned cyber security app on all new devices, and ensure users cannot delete it. The only country to have attempted this level of intrusiveness in the personal phones of all citizens is Putin’s Russia.

The sinister move, detailed in an order first reported by Reuters, raises serious privacy concerns. The government launched the Sanchar Saathi app in January but the public response has been, unsurprisingly, cold. According to the report, last week’s directive gives smartphone companies 90 days to ensure Sanchar Saathi is preloaded on all new phones, with no option for users to disable it. For devices already in the supply chain, manufacturers have been told to push the app through software updates. Reuters quoted a source familiar with Apple’s policies saying the company pre-installs only its proprietary apps and “its internal policies prohibit installation of any government or third-party app before sale of a smartphone”.

Nikhil Pahwa explains the significance of the government’s latest push: