Because India does not like the Oppo deal with China
The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
An agreement between the Indian space agency to exchange the technical details of its satellite messaging service with the Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has provoked a negative political reaction, underlining the delicate state of bilateral relations. Let's go into specifics.
As is known, a memorandum of understanding was made between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Indian branch of OPPO, OPPO India, which will allow the integration of China with the navigation system Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC ) used by messaging services and mobile phone users.
NavIC's primary job is to provide Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services, but it can also broadcast short messages. This service is used to send safety alerts to areas with poor communications, particularly in maritime areas. NavIC provides regional navigation services covering the Indian mainland and up to 1500km beyond.
OPPO India, for its part, has been optimistic about the collaboration because it will pave the way for future collaborations to develop indigenous solutions by incorporating the NavIC short message function in smartphones released by OPPO India.
The political reaction has been much colder, with the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi under fire from the opposition and experts ringing security alarm bells.
In fact, for some congressmen, the fact that ISRO has signed a research and development pact with OPPO, a Chinese company, means that it will now be able to access the data collected by ISRO. And that could compromise national security. This means that there is strong opposition within the congress regarding the collaboration between India and China, also motivated by the recent clashes on the borders.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/oppo-cina-india/ on Sat, 25 Dec 2021 07:17:16 +0000.