Senior officials stated on Monday that the government is reviewing formal proposals from messaging services WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal regarding a common set of rules for usernames on digital platforms.
After receiving formal notices, the platforms—which presently employ mobile phone numbers to identify users—submitted their official answers to the government last week.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, was specifically instructed by the Center to stop implementing its unique username feature right away. According to ET, Meta later stated that it would not release the functionality in India until thorough conversations were completed and all issues were resolved.
Citing worries about identity theft, impersonation, and cyber fraud, the Center warned that substituting user IDs for mobile numbers might result in a rise in phishing, digital arrest scams, and phony profiles posing as public people or official agencies.
In order to improve the nation's cyber defense capabilities, the government is in negotiations with the US to gain access to Anthropic's cutting-edge artificial intelligence model, Mythos 5.
Information technology secretary S Krishnan stated on Monday that gaining access to AI model Mythos 5 continues to be a "high priority" while speaking at a ceremony to introduce the Digital Threat Report 2025-26 by national cybersecurity agency Cert-In.Mythos has exposed long-standing flaws in a variety of software codes. We now have the chance to recognize it and fix it thanks to mythology," he stated.

According to the IT secretary, India is negotiating its way through a procedure that the US has set up for gaining access to Mythos.
While Fable 5 has been accessible to consumers worldwide since July 1, Anthropic has not yet released Mythos to a wider range of local and foreign Glasswing program partners.
Cyberthreats
According to Krishnan, Cert-In is strengthening India's cyber defense capabilities by conducting dry-run exercises in a sandbox setting employing alternative advanced AI models. Currently, these models provide around 60% of Mythos' security gap detection capabilities.Cyberattacks in India's banking, financial services, and insurance industries were 60% higher than the worldwide average, according to Cert-In's most recent digital threat study. The number of attacks doubled to 2.9 million in 2025 from 1.4 million in 2021.
In reference to the recent cyberattack on Tata Electronics, Krishnan stated that the company is collaborating with Cert-In and has informed them that nothing important has been lost.According to Krishnan, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is now examining a list of applications it has received for the positions of chairperson and members of the Data Protection Board of India (DPBI). The DPDP Act, 2023 will be enforced by the board, an independent adjudicatory body that prioritizes digital technology.