What are ‘Chakshu’ and ‘DIP’, platforms launched by govt to curb online fraud?

The Centre on Monday launched two new digital platforms, ‘Chakshu’ and ‘Digital Intelligence Platform’, that will help citizens flag calls and text messages by fraudsters, and enable real-time coordination between law enforcement agencies, banks, financial intermediaries and other stakeholders to block numbers that are engaged in frauds, respectively.

Union telecom and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Chakshu will allow Indian citizens to report fraudulent communication–whether received on call or SMS or social media like WhatsApp. Once such information is received, the platform will trigger re-verification, and failing re-verification the number will be disconnected."

Launched along with ‘Chakshu’, the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP)' allows for coordination among the stakeholders to curb misuse of telecom resources.

READ | 65 bank accounts found frozen after pan-India misuse in cyber fraud

The government launched the platforms as several instances of fraud came to the fore, with criminals pretending to be bank or government officials calling up individuals to garner their information for malicious purposes.

Here's more about the newly launched platforms on Sanchar Saathi portal:

1. Chakshu is available on Sanchar Saathi portal so that citizens can report suspected fraudulent calls, SMS, and WhatsApp messages and calls.

2. ⁠DIP is not accessible to citizens and is a back-end module allowing real time intelligence sharing between law enforcement agencies, telecom service providers, social media platforms and document issuing authorities etc.

3. The DoT is also working on setting up a grievance redressal portal to report connections that were disconnected by mistake, and to return money in frozen accounts to citizens by coordinating with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Department of Financial Services.