In line with PM Modi’s ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission’, the Indian Army has launched a secure WhatsApp-like Messaging application. The App is called “Secure Application for the Internet or SAI.
SAI aims to offer a secure messaging service to the Indian Army soldiers. The app is currently available only on the Android platform and is said to be available soon on iOS as well.
The messaging comes with support for end-to-end secure voice text and video calling services for Android smartphones. The app has been launched to prevent leaking of any sensitive information to intelligence agencies that could be a threat to national security, the Ministry of Defence said.
As per a statement released the Indian Army, the messaging app has been vetted by CERT-in empanelled auditor and Army Cyber Group, and the process for filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) hosting the infrastructure on NIC is in progress.
“The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS and utilises end-to-end Encryption messaging protocol. SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding, which can be tweaked as per requirements,” the ministry said in a release.
“SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service. The Defence Minister after reviewing the functionalities of the app complimented Col Sai Shankar for his skill and ingenuity for developing the application,” it added.