The government said on Tuesday that it had raised with the U.S. its concerns over the reported snooping on Indian electronic communications by some American agencies.

According to revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the American National Security Agency (NSA) spied on many countries, including India, with billions of pieces of information plucked from its telephone and Internet networks in 30 days in March 2013. In the list of countries spied on by NSA programmes, India stood at fifth place.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju informed the Lok Sabha: “The government has raised its concerns with the U.S. side, including at senior levels, on the reported authorisation given to entities of the U.S. government to snoop on communications emanating from India.

“The United States has noted that it fully respects and understands the feelings expressed by India in this regard.”