Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications has set up a New Nodal Agency called ‘Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU)’ & Consumer protection mechanism called ‘Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP)’ for tackling Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), financial frauds involving telecom resources.
- The decision to set up DIU & TAFCOP was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Communications.
- The main purpose of DIU will be to coordinate with various Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA), Financial Institutions & Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to investigate Fraud activities which involve the telecom resources.
- The TAFCOP system will be set up at 22 License Service Area Level.
Key Points discussed during the Meeting:
- During the meeting, concerns regarding Unsolicited Messages on mobile phones, harassment through SMS, promising fraudulent loan transactions were discussed.
- The main aim of the meeting was to make all digital transactions safe and secure.
- Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad proposed to impose Financial Penalty & disconnection of resources against tele-marketers who repeatedly violate rules and disturb the citizens.
- He also proposed to develop a web/mobile application & SMS based system for addressing grievances regarding UCC.
Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC):
- Any Commercial Communication (excluding messages from Central/State Government) which a subscriber opts not to receive are called UCC.
- In 2018, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) notified the ‘Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preferences Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018’ to curb the problem of UCCs.
Recent Related News:
i.December 10, 2020, According to the 4th Edition of Global Insights Report for 2020 released by Truecaller, a Swedish Caller ID and Spam Blocking app, India ranked 9th in the list of countries affected by spam calls in 2020.
About Ministry of Communications:
Union Minister – Ravi Shankar Prasad (Lok Sabha MP, Constituency – Patna Sahib)
Minister of State – Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao (Lok Sabha MP, Constituency – Akola, Maharashtra)
