The Ministry of Communications on May 16, 2023, launches the Sanchar Saathi portal.
Brief on Sanchar Saathi initiative-
With 117 crore subscribers, India has emerged as the second-largest telecom ecosystem in the world. In addition to communication, mobile phones are being used for banking, entertainment, e-learning, healthcare, availing government services, etc.
It is therefore crucial that the users are protected from various frauds such as identity theft, forged KYC, theft of mobile devices, banking frauds, etc.
To protect users, the Deptt of Telecom has developed a citizen-centric portal named Sanchar Saathi.
•Check the connections registered on their names
•Report fraudulent or unrequired connections
•Block the mobile phones which are stolen/lost
•Check IMEI genuineness before buying a mobile phone
ASTR (Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification)-
•Mobile connections obtained using fake/ forged documents are then used for cyber-frauds.
•To curb this menace, the Deptt of Telecom has developed an AI-powered tool – ASTR to identify SIMs issued using fraudulent/forged documents.
•ASTR used various techniques of facial recognition and data analytics.
•In the first phase, connections with paper-based KYC were analysed.
[Notification No.1924552]
