Aug. 13 – Following concerns we reported earlier about India’s belief it could become overexposed to foreign influences in its domestic telecoms sector, the Indian government is considering passing requirements that would insist on only security-cleared Indian nationals being permitted to take up senior managerial roles in telecom companies that have established operations in the country.
The proposal comes following concerns from state security agencies that non-Indian managers would otherwise have the ability to monitor and intercept calls. Such moves seem largely targeted at concerns over Huawei’s activities in India, although other foreign invested businesses such as the U.K.’s Vodafone would also be affected.
Domestic operators such as Bharti Airtel have described the proposal as “retrograde,” while government officials in the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said the minister only wanted to ensure that personnel who were responsible for authorizing monitoring activities were an Indian national. The issue, if pushed through by the government, could spell difficulties for joint ventures in the sector with foreign companies, such as Bharti Airtels merger plans with South Africa’s MTN.
New Delhi meanwhile is concerned about spying and the use of mobile networks in terror plots, an example chillingly of which was examined in the recent documentary on the Mumbai attacks.
