The government has decided to come out with new norms for import of Chinese equipment by Indian companies. The norms, which are expected to be announced shortly, make it mandatory for Chinese firms to submit to the government the software code of the equipment they are supplying for Indian projects in sectors ranging from telecom to power.
As the National Informatics Centre under the department of information technology, studies the software codes, the projects could carry on, meaning there would be no holdups due to initial security check of the equipment. The government would only act if it finds any malware.
The proposal, being given finishing touches by the National Security Council, aims at taking care of the security issues while at the same time ensuring that there is no blanket ban on Chinese equipment and no project delays are faced by Indian companies. The proposal has been approved by the PMO as well as other ministries like home and defence.
The major security threat from Chinese equipment is the software embedded in them, say government sources. ?This way, the twin objective of taking care of the security-related issues and ensuring growth of sectors such as telecom and power can go on simultaneously,? an official with the direct knowledge of the proposal said.
?Once this mechanism is in place, private companies and even PSUs like BSNL or NTPC would be free to import Chinese equipment,? the official added. Once announced, the proposal would come as a breather for Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE as well as the domestic industry, which has been facing project delays owing to non-clearance of equipment purchases. Public sector firms like BSNL and NTPC have been barred from placing orders with Chinese vendors because of security issues even though the equipment is available at competitive rates. Officials of Chinese firms, and even the country?s ambassador, met home ministry officials recently to resolve the issues.
?This is a perfect solution that takes care of all the sides. Since spywares are like virus scan software embedded in switches and can scan all calls and transmit them as data, and written in complex codes, which cannot be detected or decoded by us, it makes sense for the government to ask for the code,? a technology official in a leading telecom firm using Chinese equipment said.
The bar on Chinese equipment have hit the industry hard, particularly telecom firms, where virtually no import consignment has been cleared in the last five months.
In December 2009, the DoT came out with a clause stipulating a requirement that security clearance be obtained before placing orders for Chinese telecom equipment or software. Further, to ensure that such a move does not hamper the expansion plans of the companies due to red-tapism, DoT had also said if the government did not raise any objections within a 30-day period, the consignment would be deemed to be cleared. However, in practice the system has not worked that way. Frustrated by the delays, one of the operators, Tata Teleservices, wrote to the DoT recently complaining that it should be informed about the reasons for delay in equipment clearing and also what needed to be done to allay the apprehensions.