This article was rewritten with significant changes following editorial inputs. The Department of Telecommunications does not have data on the number of robo calls made in 2022, as per an RTI reply received by MediaNama. This is a surprising confirmation considering the government has been talking about the problem of increasing spam calls recently. Why it matters: The government had emphasised this issue last year when introducing a caller identification system. However, the RTI reply raises questions about the nature and maintenance of spam call data, of which robo calls are a subset. This also brings the move to introduce a caller identification system under the microscope as the government refuses to provide specific data on spam calls. Searching for spam calling data in India An average person would say they get at least 2-3 spam calls a day. However, to know the exact number of robo calls made last year, MediaNama sent the following questions to the telecommunications department as an RTI request: How many robo calls were made in India between January 2022 and December 2022? How many robo calls made in India between January 2022 and December 2022 were scam calls? How many robo calls made in India between January 2022 and December 2022 came from a single source? Please share details of the single source of robo calls Which region of India receives the most robo calls between January 2022 and December 2022? What is the global rank of India in terms of number of spam…
