Chinese companies not barred from participating in trusted sources search, says National Cyber Security Coordinator

Telecom equipment from China’s Huawei and ZTE are not barred from participating in the process to identify trusted sources and products for deployments but will need to go through the process of scrutiny like others, India’s National Cyber Security coordinator Lt General (retd) Rajesh Pant told ET’s Danish Khan. He rejected concerns that telcos are facing delays in 4G roll outs as a result of the new process, saying operators have the option of taking an exemption for immediate roll out needs. For example, Vodafone Idea has already been given an exemption, while similar requests by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are being considered. Edited excerpts: