Indian Army Used Sambhav Smartphone To Ensure Secure Communication During Border Talks With China; Device Looks Similar To Pixel 6a
Previously several Indian Army officials used WhatsApp and other similar applications for sharing information and documents among officials but it was found that almost all the information got leaked into the public domain. Recently in an annual press conference, Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi revealed that during the last round of talks held with China in October 2024, the Indian Army used Sambhav (Secure Army Mobile Bharat Version) smartphones for secure communication.
If we take a look at the design of this device, it looks quite similar to the Google Pixel 6a device. There is a strip kind of camera bar that houses two camera sensors and an LED flash while volume and power buttons are placed on the right side.
It is revealed that around 30,000 Sambhav phones have been given to officers. The handsets used for the project have applications like M-Sigma for messaging and sharing documents, videos, and pictures. It also has numbers of all important functionaries, so that officials don’t need to save the numbers while the Indian Army has also indigenously developed an end-to-end secure mobile ecosystem. The devices work on Jio and Airtel networks and operate on state-of-the-art 5G technology.
As per an Army official statement, “Mobile networks are inherently vulnerable to eavesdropping, putting sensitive information at risk. To counter this, we have developed an end-to-end secure mobile ecosystem that is network-agnostic and offers secure communication on the move. ”
The development of Sambhav smartphones highlights the Army’s focus on dual-use infrastructure and demonstrates the success of civil-military fusion in harnessing emerging technologies.
