Govt Drops Plan To Mandate Aadhaar App In Smartphones After Industry Opposition
· Free Press Journal
The government has dropped the plan to pre-install the Aadhaar app on smartphones. The decision was taken after consulting industry stakeholders.
The Ministry of Information Technology was not in favour of the idea proposed by UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), according to a report by Reuters.
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In January this year, the UIDAI had proposed to the ministry the pre-installation of the biometric identification application on smartphones.
The proposal was opposed by smartphone makers and the electronics industry due to potential security issues and a rise in production costs for devices to be sold in India.
UIDAI's New Aadhaar App Crosses 14 Million DownloadsApple and Samsung, in particular, both had concerns with the proposal due to questions over safety and security, the report said.
India’s IT ministry reviewed the proposal and “is not in favour of mandating the pre-installation of the Aadhaar App on smartphones,” UIDAI was quoted as saying in the report.
The IT ministry held a “consultation with stakeholders from the electronics industry” before reaching its decision to drop the Aadhaar preloading proposal, UIDAI said in its statement.
However, no specific reason was mentioned for the decision.
This was the sixth time in two years that a request was made for pre-installation of government applications on smartphones, according to the report, with industry stakeholders opposing the move every time.
In December, the government had asked companies to pre-install the cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi to verify the genuineness of mobile handsets.
Govt Relents; No Compulsion On The Sanchar Saathi AppThe directive was reversed after criticism over safety and security.
Smartphone manufacturers have repeatedly cited security concerns and device compatibility issues as the basis of their opposition to such proposals.
They also flagged the high cost of production, as smartphones to be sold in India would require a separate assembly line than export-bound devices.
This would have not only impacted the business of manufacturers in India but also dented the government’s efforts to position the country as the electronics manufacturing hub of the world.