India Mandates Sanchar Saathi App on New Smartphones, Impacting Market Landscape

India is implementing a new policy requiring all smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a state-owned cybersecurity app on new devices. This order, issued on November 28th, imposes a deadline of 90 days for compliance and mandates the Sanchar Saathi app as standard equipment on every device. This mandate impacts the country’s booming smartphone market, which includes major players like Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi. The move aims to combat cybersecurity threats but raises concerns about user privacy.