Kalam demands end to mobile tele-marketing

NEW DELHI: India's President Abdul Kalam added his voice on Thursday to appeals by mobile telephone owners to stop unsolicited marketing calls.   

The president told the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, an autonomous watchdog, to adopt modern technology and provide greater privacy to the country's millions of harassed mobile telephone users.   

Kalam's urging came after India's telecom watchdog called for measures to shield consumers from tele-marketing.   

"Although some restrictions are in place for unsolicited telephone calls, there is a need for a more effective control mechanism," the scientist-turned- president told an industry conference.   

"Ethics for utilisation of telecom tools and technologies need to be evolved so that individual privacy is not intruded upon," added Kalam, known as the father of India's missile programme. 

A recent survey of unwanted callers put foreign-funded private banks at the top of the offenders' list with the domestic services sector coming close in terms of bombarding mobile telephone users with calls or SMS messages.