Govt Orders Mandatory Sanchar Saathi App On All New Smartphones

India's telecom ministry has privately asked all smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cybersecurity app, a government order showed, a move set to spark a tussle with Apple, which typically dislikes such directives.

India is one of the world's largest telephone markets, with more than 1.2 billion subscribers, and government figures show the app, launched in January, has helped recover more than 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone. 

The November 28 order, seen by Reuters, gives major smartphone companies 90 days to ensure that the government's Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on new mobile phones, with a provision that users cannot disable it.