Chinese gear makers Huawei and ZTE were barred access from a newly launched government portal for listing trusted products in the telecom sector
As border tensions continue to rise between India and its neighbouring nation China, trade relations between the countries are also impacted subsequently. A few months ago, the Indian government had announced a ban on numerous apps with links to China and a nationwide ban on Chinese products was observed. Chinese Electronics manufacturers still face a lot of backlash in this regard. The Indian government had recently officially launched a portal that would have a list of all the trusted telecom operators, their products and their gear makers. It comes as no surprise that Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE were not provided login details for accessing the portal by the Central Government.
National Security Directive Was Implemented on Telecom Sector
The Indian telecom sector witness high imports of products and components from China as they are cheaper compared to other markets. India being a price-sensitive market, finds Chinese products favourable due to their extremely competitive pricing. Therefore, a National Security Directive was implemented to check the telecom sector and its dependence on Chinese products.
On the other hand, Indian telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, along with their international vendors like Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco, Tejas Networks, and HFCL, have all received their credentials to access the portal.
The Trusted Telecom Products Portal Was Launched on June 15th
The trusted telecom products portal was launched to give clearance to trusted telecom products used by telecom operators in their networks. The portal was officially launched on June 15th, being in line with the National Security Directive. Telecom operators are required to specify the products they want to procure and also mention the procurement vendor. The gear makers mentioned by telecom operators will also receive access to the portal.
In such cases where a telecom operator intends to procure telecom gears from any Chinese manufacturer, the operator itself will be responsible for fulfilling all the requirements on the portal on behalf of the Chinese gear makers. The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) will then carefully scrutinise the case and make a decision on terming the product under the trusted category or not. A waiver can also be sought by telecom operators if they want to use products from Chinese companies.
