Indian Government will soon change the process of issuing official tenders and selection of contractors to work on key technology infrastructure sectors. A government official has revealed that the move has been taken in correspondence with Indian government’s increased focus on data and cyber security which has came out now under increasing scrutiny in light of cyber espionage activities by China in India.
The Indian government is planning to ramp us the increase of security at all levels including the online security framework of the nation. This is being done as a precautionary step and a response to attempts by China at cyber espionage and sources of CNN-News 18 has stated that the critical sectors of India has not been compromised. China has been using private “intelligence” players track on 10,000 Indian citizens and make surveillance maps for them.
The surveillance maps can lead to China trying to interfere with the socio-political affairs of India. The Indian government banned over 200 apps in the last two months that had ties with China. These also included two heavily popular apps – TikTok and PUBG. Along with this, Indian government has also discouraged Chinese infrastructure players like Huawei and ZTE from taking part in the 5G trials of India.
The Indian government would also change the process of tech tenders that was based on the lowest bidder winning the government contract. This has helped Chinese companies to win numerous contracts with Indian government. Now according to a new tender structure, the government will prioritize Make in India and Aatmanirbhar startups and companies to promote homegrown services in the country. This would also bring an economic change in India.
At present, Reliance Jio has announced the rollout of 5G network and has said that it will be built completely from scratch in India. On the other hand, after a ban on TikTok, Indian startups like ShareChat, Roposo, Chingari and Koo took centerstage are working as a response to Chinese services being suspended in India. These situations are being highlighted as the ability of India to sustain itself completely and minimising China’s access to India’s cyberspace.