The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today convened the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) in New Delhi to strengthen coordinated efforts against spam, cyber fraud, and misuse of telecom infrastructure — especially amid rising digital payment-linked scams.
Key regulators including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), and the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), along with officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), participated in the high-level meeting.
Highlights from the Meeting:
1600-Series for BFSI Calls: Sector regulators agreed on a phased migration to the exclusive 1600-number series for service and transactional calls in the banking, financial services, and insurance sectors to combat spoofed caller IDs and spam.
Digital Consent Pilot with Major Banks: TRAI and RBI have launched a pilot for a digital consent acquisition (DCA) framework involving seven major banks — SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank — and eight telecom operators. The system aims to replace unverifiable offline consents with secure, tamper-proof digital approvals for commercial communication.
Automated Fraud Enforcement Tools: Regulators discussed integrating data between the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform, and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) systems for quicker response to fraud cases, including automated number disconnection.
SIP/PRI Line Safeguards: Concerns over misuse of enterprise telecom lines for spam led to discussions on issuing lines from a designated range and implementing stricter controls.
Revamped SMS Header Portal: TRAI has updated its portal (smsheader.trai.gov.in) to allow consumers to identify commercial message senders using specific SMS headers.
NPCI as Strategic Partner: Given the rise in fraud linked to mobile transactions and UPI, NPCI has joined the committee to support coordinated action across payment platforms.
TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti emphasized the importance of regulator collaboration in building a secure digital ecosystem. He praised DoT’s Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) initiative and called for swift, practical implementation of anti-fraud measures that do not hinder legitimate business activity.
TelecomLead.com News Desk
