Sanchar Saathi Without Sanchar | QuickTake #2

Day x of finding a problem for an intelligent solution

This time it’s the Sanchar Saathi App. Launched in early 2025, it allows users to flag spam calls, SMS, or WhatsApp messages, allows them to block their device’s IMEI number if and when it gets stolen (a unique 15-digit number for every handset) to prevent device cloning or resale, and enables real-time reporting of suspicious calls.

The government’s stance mandating pre-installation on devices can be explained. Several layers to that debate, but you can trust the mainstream media, social media influencers, and the government (yes, the government) to not get into the critical details.

Truth be told, a routine user has no incentive to go for Sanchar Saathi. On good days, which outnumber the worst by a huge margin, you are not worried about losing your phone. The spam calls are like the furniture you bump into occasionally. A momentary scar, but nothing beyond it.

But Sanchar Saath is not for the good days. It is for the bad days. Think of Sanchar Saath like an insurance for your car. The mandatory installation felt like a challan to most, however. Call it mass hysteria or peer pressure-driven reaction, but it is what it is.

Sanchar Saathi may not incentivise the good guys, but it would have disincentivised the bad guys significantly. To explain this, I invite you to a small exercise.

Look up the IMEI number of your device. It’s in the Settings section. 15-digits. Unique to your device.

Now, one fine day, your phone gets stolen. You report the theft. An FIR copy is given to you. Using the app, you confirm the theft (upload a set of documents, including the FIR) and the IMEI number (can be done from a different device).

In some other city, anywhere, your stolen phone has been repackaged and resold. A brand new phone for some gullible fellow who bought an iPhone for the price of a Chinese Android. A steal deal (pun intended). Merrily, they insert their SIM card, and immediately, the phone gets blocked. What happened?

The moment the thief inserts any Indian SIM, the undeletable Sanchar Saathi app silently wakes up and reports the new IMEI+IMSI pair to CEIR, even after a factory reset. CEIR sees the blacklisted IMEI and instantly instructs every telecom tower in India to drop the connection.

The CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) server picks up the signal as the refurbished phone connects to the nearest tower. The new pair of the IMEI and IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) rings a bell, given that the IMEI was already blocked because of theft.

BOOM! The market for stolen handsets is dead. No one wants a handset that cannot connect to the cellular network. BOOM! The cartels go under. BOOM! The market for refurbishing stolen phones is gone. BOOM! Where is the incentive now to steal a handset?

But how did Sanchar Saathi being on the phone help? Well, the government believes that optional installation and deletion will allow the thieves to still enjoy the leverage as they did earlier, and therefore, the pre-installation will ensure that altering or spoofing of IMEI cannot be done.

Put simply, the mandatory pre-installed Sanchar Saathi app ensures that the stolen device sends the new pair (IMEI+IMSI) to the CEIR. Think of a terrorist using a stolen phone with multiple SIMs. His game is over. In Delhi, the grey market of stolen smartphones is already coming apart.

So, the government was not factoring the good guys here, but the bad guys, and that purpose is well served. But the perception part is not. People fear privacy. They fear that the State needs an app to profile them.

An honest comparison with other routine apps will tell you that the app permissions required for Sanchar Saathi are not starkly different. The standout point is the app’s access to one’s call log and SMS. The makers say it doesn’t record all the data. The critics have their version.

Bottom line is that the people of India, even with the government’s best intentions, won’t agree to a pre-installed app by the Indian state.

So what if they are merrily giving enough data to every tech giant in the West to profile them, their families, and the generations after them? The trust deficit against the state shall remain. It’s not a calculated choice. It’s a social media rebellion. If ‘being ignorant’ is a choice, ‘being precautionary’ must be one as well.

For the government, the choice was between having a mandatory application in the handsets owned by 140 Crore people or letting an entire industry sustained by stolen smartphones, fraudulent gangs, and cyberfrauds thrive.

The government swung the hammer and actually smashed the stolen-phone mafia. The people wanted the right to keep the hammer in the toolbox unused. Turns out the Minister handed them the toolbox and said, ‘Feel free to put the hammer back.’ BOOM! Game over.

The deficit could have been addressed through some Sanchar. The government also thought so, and therefore, one of the Union Ministers clarified that users can install and delete the apps at will, which makes me wonder, what’s really the point of having this app then?

Author’s Note: You’ll be getting ‘QuickTakes’ regularly in your inbox. To keep a tab on the issues in question, a numbering pattern will be followed from hereon.