Indian government bans the BlackBerry

Citing security reasons, India's Union Home Ministry has rejected Tata Teleservices' application to offer the RIM BlackBerry. The reason given is that the secure nature of the BlackBerry does not allow for any data interception, and the Centre sees that as a threat where terrorist organizations are concerned. The clincher here is that other Indian telecommunications companies already offer the BlackBerry in India. As such, Tata Teleservices is seeking a clarification from the Department of Telecommunications if other telcos would be compelled to end their support for the BlackBerry. The decision is even more bizarre when you consider that other popular push mail technologies, such as Microsoft's Direct Push, also allow encrypted transfer of data via SSL. I would be interested to see the result of the request for clarification. 

For more on the BlackBerry in India:
- check out this The Hindu article