#MCTech3 | Govt drops mandatory Sanchar Saathi pre-installation; Meesho's Valmo edges past Delhivery in order volumes; and more

Just In: Pine Labs swings back to profit in its first post-listing results.

One quick thing: Ola hits brakes on food delivery, again

In today’s newsletter:  

• Govt drops mandatory Sanchar Saathi pre-installation 
• Meesho's Valmo edges past Delhivery in order volumes
• Yogi's semicon push: Highlights from UP Tech Next Summit

Also, ever wondered what you watched on YouTube the most this year? Scroll below for more deets!

P.S.: Tune into Tech3 Podcast, your daily dose of tech and startup insights. Monday to Friday! Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And don’t forget to sign up to The AI Edge, our weekly newsletter on all things artificial intelligence.

Govt drops mandatory Sanchar Saathi pre-installation

The controversy was instant, the backlash was fierce, and the rollback is now official.

Driving the news: The Indian government has dropped its plan to mandate pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app on all new smartphones.

• The original goal behind the directive was to give all citizens easy access to cyber security tools, the government said. 

However, the mandate was no longer necessary since the app was already witnessing a sharp rise in citizen uptake and daily fraud reporting. 

How quickly are people picking up the app? The government stated that about 1.4 crore users have downloaded the app and are contributing to information on 2000 fraud incidents per day. 

• In just one day, 6 lakh citizens have downloaded the app, marking a 10x spike. 

Catch up quick: Last week, the DoT directed all smartphone makers to preinstall Sanchar Saathi on every new device sold in India and push it to existing devices through a mandatory software update. 

• Smartphone makers were given three months to include the app in the new devices.

The move was expected to trigger a fresh showdown with Apple, which has historically resisted such directives. 

• Apple has previously clashed with India’s telecom regulator over a government-developed anti-spam app. 

Privacy fears? The move had also triggered fresh alarm among public-policy experts and digital rights advocates, who argued that the mandate is disproportionate, opaque and risks normalising surveillance.

The government however countered this criticism, asserting that the mandate carries no privacy or surveillance risks.

"The app is secure and purely meant to help citizens from bad actors in the cyber world," it said.

This is a short version of the MCTech3 newsletter. Sign up here to get the full edition in your inbox every evening on weekdays.