India withdraws demand for forced installation of government app

The other day ComputerSweden reported that the Indian government had demanded that all mobile phones in the country be equipped with the government app Sanchar Saathi within 90 days.

After mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple openly announced that they would not comply with the requirement, the Indian government has now decided to back down on the issue.

– Given the increasing acceptance of Sanchar Saathis, the government has decided not to make pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers, writes the Indian Ministry of Communications in a statement.

It seems that the use of Sanchar Saathi, which can be used to block lost or stolen devices, will be voluntary.

Since its launch in January, the app has been downloaded 14 million times, Techcrunch reports.