Govt formulating new action plan, Chinese telecom giants could be out of game (IANS Exclusive)

New Delhi, Jan 21 : Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE could be potentially out of the game in India with the government set to begin formulating an action plan on the implementation of ‘National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector’on Thursday.
With an aim to protect India’s essential national security interests, a committee headed by the Deputy National Security Advisor (Dy NSA) will soon clear all equipment and gadgets, including 5G mobile networks and supply chains.
Top sources in the government told IANS that “a meeting of nodal officials of key ministries was called (on January 21) to formulate a strategy to secure India’s paramount interest in the field of cyber and telecom security”.
Key officials of the Telecom Ministry, Commerce Ministry and the DRDO, along with cyber security experts were called in the all important meeting, sources said, adding that “a meeting was called by the National Security Council Secretariat, but it was all too confidential. Nothing can be revealed further”.
The security action plan aims to classify telecom products/equipment and their suppliers under the trusted and non-trusted categories. In simpler words, companies or suppliers not trusted by the experts committee would not be allowed to do business with Indian telecom service providers.
Once implemented, the action plan would make it very difficult for Chinese telecom equipment suppliers like Huawei or ZTE to procure supply orders from the Indian telecom players such as Jio, Airtel or Vodafone Idea.