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Following widespread outrage, the Union government, on Wednesday, December 3, withdrew its decision to pre-install the controversial Sanchar Saathi App on newly-manufactured smartphones.

The government was, however, careful in not crediting the Opposition and the public for the reversal, and instead claimed that since many users have voluntarily downloaded the App, there was no longer a need to make the state-owned ‘cyber-security’ tool mandatory.

“Given Sanchar Saathi’s increasing acceptance, the Government has decided not to make the pre- installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers,” the Ministry of Communications said in a press statement.

According to the government, nearly 1.4 crore users have downloaded the controver

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