Hardware firms chary of govt definition of ‘trusted sources’
IT hardware industry is increasingly concerned about what could be New Delhi’s definition of “trusted hardware”, with the Centre stressing that imposition of import curbs on laptops, tablets and servers is primarily due to national security reasons. Industry executives say that while the government has been successful in restricting Chinese players Huawei and ZTE from participating in India’s 5G rollout after adoption of the “trusted sources” approach, replicating the same for IT hardware won’t be feasible. That’s because unlike telecom equipment, laptops/tablets are consumer devices. More importantly, more than 80% of the market is controlled by non-Chinese firms belonging to the US, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which are already trusted trade partners of India, said industry executives. Lenovo is the only Chinese firm. Under India’s new rules for security of mobile networks, telcos are mandated to buy network equipment only from entities labelled by the National Cyber Security Coordinator as a ‘trusted source’ and product designated as a ‘trusted’ one.
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« Back to recommendation storiesI don't want to see these stories becauseSUBMIT“We have been hearing that the government wants trusted hardware systems and the move to restrict imports is due to national security. But we don’t understand the trigger for the move as our systems are already secured and we also follow the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) regime,” said an executive with one of US’s leading hardware manufacturers.
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