Security agencies seek additional information from Chinese telecom firms

Huawei and ZTE, the two Chinese telecom firms that had drawn the attention of the security agencies, continue to be under scrutiny and they would be cleared to do business in India only after the security agencies get the additional information sought from them.

A high-level meeting chaired by cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar was called to discuss 'in totality' the issues related to Chinese companies doing business in India particularly in the backdrop of hacking attempts from China, according to official sources.

The practices of Chinese companies seem to have raised serious security concerns in India according to analysts.

At the meeting security agencies expressed reservations on allowing the Chinese companies in areas of telecom and information technology. The agencies citied incidents of Chinese hackers targeting sensitive data on government web sites.

Union home secretary G K Pillai will be reportedly calling another meeting to discuss threadbare various aspects of the issue.

Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh's recent remarks over the home ministry's attitude towards Chinese investments had sparked off a controversy recently.