New Delhi, May 17, 2023: Union Minister of Communications,  Ashwini Vaishnaw,   has launched the Sanchar Saathi portal  which is aimed at helping mobile phone owners  keep track of their connections and  block them when the handset is lost or stolen.
The site, https://sancharsaathi.gov.in  has services like:
- CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) – for blocking stolen/lost mobiles and
- TAFCOP (Telecom Analytics for Fraud  Management  and Consumer Protection)
It allows citizens to:
-Check the connections registered on their names
-Report fraudulent or unrequired connections
-Block the mobile phones which are stolen/lost
-Check IMEI genuineness before buying a mobile phone
The Minister said that various frauds such as identity theft, forged KYC, banking frauds can take place by misusing mobile phones. This portal has been developed to prevent such frauds. He said user safety is also an important part of the draft Telecom bill.
Mr Vaishnaw also launched ASTR (Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification) – to identify fraudulent subscribers.
Mobile connections obtained using fake/ forged documents are  used for cyber-frauds.To curb this menace, Deptt of Telecom has developed AI powered tool – ASTR to identify SIMs issued using fraudulent/forged documents. ASTR used various techniques of facial recognition and data analytics.