April 1st: India Strikes Hard at China's 'Third Eye'! Chinese CCTV Cameras Could Be Banned Starting April 1st..

Chinese CCTV Brands: India is now preparing to deal another major blow to China. Chinese brands selling CCTV equipment in India—such as Hikvision, Dahua, and TP-Link—could face a severe setback. Starting April 1st, new certification requirements will come into effect under the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) framework, making STQC approval mandatory for any CCTV product sold in India.

According to a report by *The Economic Times*, citing industry executives, it has emerged that officials are reportedly refusing to grant this certification to Chinese companies or to any device containing Chinese chipsets. A lack of clearance effectively means no market access—making this, in essence, a ban.

Concerns regarding surveillance hardware from Chinese manufacturers are not solely trade-related; they center on whether these devices could potentially allow unauthorized remote access to sensitive footage. Under the new regulations, manufacturers are required to disclose the country of origin for specific components—particularly the "System-on-Chip" (SoC)—and must submit their devices for vulnerability testing. When the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) introduced these "Essential Requirements Norms" in April 2022, companies were granted a two-year transition window; that window is now closing.

Rising Dominance of Indian Companies
Chinese brands had established a strong foothold in India's CCTV market, accounting for approximately one-third of total sales as recently as last year. That dominance has now eroded rapidly. Indian manufacturers—such as CP Plus, Qubo, Prama, Matrix, and Sparsh—have moved swiftly to fill this void, restructuring their supply chains around Taiwanese chipsets and localizing their firmware. According to Counterpoint Research, the results are evident: as of February, Indian players now control over 80 percent of the market.

Under the new framework, more than 500 CCTV models have already received certification; this clearly indicates that the process is operational and moving forward. Companies that prepared in advance are in a strong position, whereas those that failed to prepare—or were dependent on Chinese components—will effectively be out of the market starting April 1st.

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