New Delhi: Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Tuesday launched a citizen-friendly portal called 'Sanchar Saathi' which will allow citizens to block or trace their lost or stolen mobile phones.
Terming 'safety' an important part of the draft Telecom bill, the Union Minister said, "Safety and security of the users is an integral part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India" and this portal is "fulfilling this vision".
“First leg of Sanchar Saathi portal is CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register). If you lose your mobile phone, then you can visit this portal. There will be some identity verification, requirement of undertaking and immediately after this the portal will interact with law enforcement agencies and telecom service providers and block your lost mobile phone,” Vaishnaw said.
The Minister said that various frauds such as identity theft, forged KYC, banking frauds can take place by misusing mobile phones and added that "this portal has been developed to prevent such frauds." 'Sanchar Saathi' is an artificial intelligence (AI) based portal that will allow tracking and blocking of lost and stolen mobile phones. Through the portal, a mobile user can know if more connections are taken on his or her name fraudulently and the same can be blocked.
While speaking at the launch, the Union Minister said that the three reforms are being introduced today towards furthering Prime Minister's vision. The first reform is the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), which enables the tracking and blocking of lost or stolen phones anywhere in the country. The second is Know Your Mobile (KYM), which allows users to check the number of mobile connections issued in their name by logging in using their mobile number. And the third is ASTR (Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification).
With the help of this portal, the device can be deactivated even if a new SIM card has been inserted as the device is tracked through its unique identification number (IMEI). Through the portal, a mobile user can know if more connections are taken on his or her name fraudulently and the same can be blocked. Thirdly, the system can check how many mobile connections a user has taken.
Replying to a bunch of questions from media personnel in the sudden rise in the spam calls on OTT platforms from international numbers, the minister replied that "it’s a big concern and some harsh decisions have to be taken." When asked about measures that the government is taking to check fraud through calls on WhatsApp, the minister said that Meta owned app has agreed to deactivate services linked to any mobile phone number engaged in fraudulent activities.
“We have actively engaged with WhatsApp and they have agreed that customer safety is most important. All the OTT platforms are actively cooperating to deregister the users which have been detected as fraud users,” he said. He further said that 36 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected for fraud and simultaneously their WhatsApp account has been blocked.
It is pertinent to note here that the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in identifying fraud cases is another crucial aspect of this portal. Through this AI-based initiative and the use of Param-Sidhhi Supercomputer, the system has analyzed 87 crore mobile connections, a total of 40.87 Lakh suspected mobile connections detected, deactivated 36 lakh mobile numbers and blacklisted over 40,000 Point of Sales (PoS) devices involved in fraudulent activities.
The details of disconnected numbers have been shared with banks, payment wallets and social media platforms for disengaging these numbers with their accounts.
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