After facing a huge backlash, the central government on Wednesday withdrew an order mandating pre-installation the Sanchar Saathi app on smartphones sold in the country. The government’s app was under the Opposition’s scanner, and even privacy activists were criticising the move. However, the government did not remove this mandate because of these reasons.

Why did the government withdraw its earlier move?

According to a PIB release regarding the rollback of the order, the government said it had rolled back the mandate because “the number of users who have downloaded the app (over six lakh in 24 hours and 1.4 crore users overall) has been increasing rapidly.” It added that the preinstallation order was “meant to accelerate this process.” The withdrawal comes after the order triggered a hu

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