Union Minister for Commerce said that the ban put on the procurement of mobile phones is not applicable on China alone. He said that the ban is not being put to aim at the Chinese products alone, but is applicable to other nations as well.

Talking to the reporters, Sharma said that the idea behind this is security. It does not mean that India is not trying to encourage trade, he added.

Sharma also pointed out that the aforesaid ban was not country specific but sector specific. He also said that the government had taken this decision as per the guidelines and parameters given to it by the security agencies.

The step was taken in consultation and collaboration with the Union Home Ministry. As per the directive, all the phones which did not have International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number were banned from importing their handsets to India.

IMEI is a 15-digit long code that is unique to every handset and which blinks every time a call is made. IMEI is important since it helps the authorities in tracking a handset and thus the user.