India’s national security planners are reflecting on a security architecture that eliminates enemy countries from participating in core sectors such as energy, telecommunications and highways by verifying the origin of imported equipment into the country and testing its reliability, people familiar with the matter told the Hindustan Times.
In addition, India will opt for collaborative partnerships in the development of critical technologies like 5G and 5G plus at each stage through government-to-government or industry-to-industry partnerships rather than making standard purchases in the future.
“India will no longer buy black box units and will instead participate throughout the development process so that it has the option to opt for a different partner in case of technology denial. Foreign companies participating in the central sector of India will not be allowed to mask their origins and will have to request full disclosure in case of suspicion, ”said a senior government official involved in the move.
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The “origin verification” debate started in July this year against the backdrop of China throwing all the bilateral agreements on the Royal Line of Control out the window and attempting to occupy Indian territory in East Ladakh. The fighting intensified in mid-June when soldiers from two sides clashed, resulting in the loss of life on both sides. India has deployed about 50,000 troops with support elements to Ladakh after the Chinese side made it clear it would not back down.
Since then, the Ministry of Energy has decided to develop specific testing guidelines that require importers to declare the equipment’s country of origin and ensure that no malware is embedded in critical sector equipment.
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“The new testing guidelines for electrical equipment ensure that the country of origin does not install a malware that can be activated to generate an energy crisis in India,” said a senior Energy Ministry official.
Although national security planners and government technology advisers are on the same page about this rule, there is some pushback from the department of industry and telecommunications, who believe that this could increase the cost of clean equipment and there is a need to a defined threshold to reveal the country of origin.
Even in the development of 5G and 5G plus technologies, India wants to know the provenance of imported technology, with collaboration on the test bed being the first step to achieve clean telecommunications equipment. While India is very keen on collaborating on 5G with Japan, it has kept the option open for European and American telcos in case of any opacity in the joint venture.
In the last two decades, the government has learned that foreign companies bidding for basic sectors often mask their country of origin through a third country and use state subsidies to qualify for the commission’s lowest bid guideline. central surveillance.
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