India sets up elaborate system to tap phone calls, e-mail

A man checks his mobile phone near a marketplace in New Delhi June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has launched a wide-ranging surveillance programme that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament, several sources said.

The expanded surveillance in the world's most populous democracy, which the government says will help safeguard national security, has alarmed privacy advocates at a time when allegations of massive U.S. digital snooping beyond American shores has set off a global furore.