Back in January, the Narendra Modi government quietly proposed that major smartphone manufacturers consider pre-installing its biometric identification app, Aadhaar, on all new phones sold in the country -- a move that has drawn resistance from Apple, Samsung, and Google, according to internal industry letters first reported by Reuters.
The proposal, made by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), asked the IT ministry to engage leading phone makers about preloading the newly launched Aadhaar app, which allows users to update personal details, manage family profiles, and lock biometric data.
UIDAI argued the move would let citizens "readily access essential Aadhaar functionalities without the need for separate downloads" and "enhance its reach and accessibility".
The Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), which represents the smartphone giants in India, pushed back against the proposal in internal communications dating to January 13.
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Apple and Samsung in particular raised concerns over safety and security, according to two industry sources cited by Reuters.
MAIT argued that preloading the app "would not drive greater public good" and warned that such mandates would force manufacturers to maintain separate production lines for India and export markets, raising costs and creating logistical complications.
The group also noted that no country apart from Russia mandates preinstallation of government apps on mobile phones.
The Aadhaar request is one of six government app preloading proposals that MAIT has opposed over the past two years, according to a letter it sent to IT ministry official Ravinder Kumar Meena on March 10. In that letter, the industry body said it "has been consistent in its recommendation against pre-installation" across all such requests.
The dispute echoes a similar clash in December 2025, when India's telecommunications ministry ordered phone makers to preinstall the Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app in a form users could not disable. That directive drew sharp criticism from opposition parties, privacy advocates, and tech companies -- prompting the government to reverse it within days.
"It is clearly problematic," said Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a New Delhi-based digital rights group, describing the Aadhaar proposal as evidence of "a greater amount of government desire of controlling smartphone usage from the very beginning".
It remains unclear whether the government is still pursuing the proposal or has quietly shelved it.