India will come out with a list of trusted technology vendors and sources of telecom devices in order to support national security.

The Cabinet Committee on Security on Wednesday approved the National Security Directive on telecom sector.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Communications Minister, said that the move is important for national security.

He said that India government will declare trusted products for telecom sector with an aim to maintain supply chain security.

The methodology to designate trusted products will be devised by the designated authority, the National Cyber Security Coordinator, the minister said.

Prasad said that another list may also come up with designated sources from whom no procurement can be done.

The existing telecom equipment with the services providers will not be impact by the move, he added.

This year, amid border tensions with China, India has banned over 200 Chinese mobile apps and restricted certain investments from the neighbour.

India on Wednesday introduced its first and biggest framework to protect itself from cyber attacks, data theft and other virtual vulnerabilities threatening its national security, IANS reported.

In 2019, India faced around four lakh cyber attacks as monitored by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) recently told the Parliament that till August 2020, Indian citizens, government and business entities faced around seven lakh cyber attacks. As per their estimates, Rs.1.24 lakh crore was lost due to cyber crimes in India during the last year. Recent ransomware attacks as well as data and identity thefts have been a serious cause for concern for India’s national security.

The office of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval noted that with the increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the risk will continue to increase manifold and the advent of 5G technology will further increase the security concerns resulting from telecom networks.

The directive does not envisage mandatory replacement of the existing equipment already inducted in the networks of the TSPs. The directive will also not affect the ongoing annual maintenance contracts (AMCs) or updates to existing equipment already inducted in the network as on date of effect of the directive.