New Delhi, 20 November 2025 – A storm is brewing in India’s digital forensics community as senior experts accuse multinational forensic companies of systematically blocking genuine Indian innovations through unethical practices, fake “Make in India” branding, and alleged under-the-table deals with procurement officials.
Industry veterans with over 25 years of experience claim that several foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) continue to dominate mobile forensics tenders despite failing to meet mandatory Indian preference rules. Under the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017 (revised 2020 and 2023), any bidder claiming “Make in India” status must prove at least 50% local value addition for Class-I local suppliers (20% for Class-II) and cannot be a mere assembler or re-brander. Yet, multiple foreign vendors are accused of setting up shell companies, pasting Indian-sounding brand names on imported kits, and submitting forged local-content certificates to fraudulently qualify as Class-I suppliers.
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“These are not Make-in-India products; they are ‘Screwdriver Technology’ operations that import 90–95% of the hardware and software from Israel, USA or Europe, slap a Hindi name on the box, and bribe their way into restricted tenders,” a senior forensic examiner told this correspondent on condition of anonymity. Sources allege that commissions ranging from 15–30% of contract value are routinely paid to middlemen and decision-makers to keep authentic Indian solutions out.
Government rules are crystal clear: Rule 144(xi) of General Financial Rules and DPIIT guidelines mandate prior experience and technical capability checks, yet several state police and central agencies reportedly waive field trials for favoured foreign-linked vendors while subjecting Indian developers to endless “proof-of-concept” cycles that last years.
Real Make-in-India players – companies that indigenously design chip-off tools, JTAG/ISP solutions, drone forensics modules, and AI-based artefact analysis engines tailored for Indian apps (ShareChat, Josh, MX TakaTak, regional language artefacts) – say they are repeatedly told their products are “not premium enough” – code, insiders claim, for not paying the expected kickbacks.
“One foreign-linked vendor threatened to blacklist my laboratory from their ‘training programmes’ if I continued recommending an Indian tool that outperformed their product in recovering data from Realme and Vivo devices running latest ColorOS,” revealed a serving forensic director of a state FSL.
As India aims to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030, dependence on foreign forensic tools raises grave national-security concerns: backdoors, data leaks to third countries, and deliberate incompatibility with Indian firmware updates.
The message from the trenches is unambiguous: unless investigating agencies and procurement authorities enforce verifiable local content, conduct open public trials, and punish false self-certification (punishable under Section 7 of the PPP-MII Order with blacklisting), genuine Indian forensic innovation will remain suppressed.
It is time to end the era of fake “premium” imports and scripted rebranding. True Make-in-India digital forensics – designed here, coded here, manufactured here – is ready. The only thing missing is the political and administrative will to let it breathe.
