Govt examining measures to curb telecom fraud, says Union Minister

Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said measures to curb telecom fraud, including blocking calls at international gateways and enhancing information sharing among telecom service providers, are being actively examined by the government.

Govt examining measures to curb telecom fraud

New Delhi [India], April 24 (ANI): Measures to curb telecom fraud, including blocking at international gateways and better information sharing among operators, are being actively examined, Union Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said on the sidelines of the COAI DigiCom Summit 2026 in Delhi.

Highlighting the need for coordinated action across telecom service providers (TSPs), Pemmasani said, "e-KYC, information sharing... if one TSP does an effective intervention, it should translate quickly to other TSPs... whether we can block at the international gateway level." He added that multiple mechanisms are being explored to strengthen fraud detection and prevention systems.

"There are multiple ways... they have mechanisms to identify how we are doing, Sanchar Saathi. They should be able to do the same things and then share with them," he said.

Concerns over misuse of emerging technologies

On concerns around emerging technologies such as Mythos-Anthropic AI, the minister cautioned against misuse. "These are all the things that we have to do, but at the same time... that stuff should not also go into the wrong hands... we will be taking all these things into picture," he said.

Pemmasani further noted that the government will examine these issues through its digital intelligence systems. "At the digital intelligence platform, we look into all these things. That is something also we will be taking," he added.

Vodafone Idea reassessment ongoing

Abhijit Kishore, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Idea Limited, also attended the event, where he spoke about the company's reassessment exercise. "Reassessment is going on... we'll come back once the reassessment is over... hopefully it should happen soon," he said.

Kishore said the company is currently in a "silent period" ahead of results. "We are in a silent period right now, because the reports are not out... can't really make any comment," he said.

However, he pointed to improving subscriber trends based on publicly available data. "Feb and March numbers have been published by TRAI ... we have moved from being a negative sub-addition into a positive territory... you can see a clear improvement," he said, adding that further clarity will come after official disclosures.

On developments around Anthropic or Mythos AI, Kishore said activity in the sector is increasing but declined to comment in detail. "Whether it's Anthropic or not... there is a lot of work happening in that sector... we'll wait for the government to come back... on the reassessment," he said. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)