The Centre introduced two new digital platforms on Monday that will enable people to report fraudulent phone calls and text messages.

The Sanchar Saathi portal will incorporate the new platforms, 'Chakshu' and 'DIP', enabling multiple stakeholders to share real-time intelligence.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, stated, “Chakshu will allow Indian citizens to report fraudulent communication–whether received on call or SMS or social media like WhatsApp. Once such information is received, the platform will trigger re-verification, and failing re-verification the number will be disconnected."

Launched together with 'Chakshu', the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) enables stakeholders to collaborate and prevent the improper use of telecom resources.

The government introduced the platforms in response to numerous cases of fraud, where criminals impersonated bank or government officials and contacted individuals to obtain their personal information for malicious reasons.

Here's more about the newly launched platforms on Sanchar Saathi portal:

• Both ‘Chakshu’ and Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) are backend modules meant for LEAs, banks, TSPs etc.

• The new portals will act as means of information exchange and coordination agency among telecom companies, law enforcement agencies, banks and financial institutions, social media platforms, and authorities issuing identity documents.

• The portals will also contain information about the cases detected as misuse of telecom resources. This information could be useful to the stakeholders in their respective domains.

• The DoT is also working on setting up a grievance redressal portal to report connections that were disconnected by mistake, and to return money in frozen accounts to citizens by coordinating with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Department of Financial Services.

Neeraj Mittal, the Telecom Secretary, emphasised that the introduction of these two new portals marks further progress in addressing cybersecurity risks to the digital assets of every individual. He highlighted that these platforms will assist in preventing fraudulent activities and the misuse of communication systems.