Traders' body hails govt move to ban 118 apps with Chinese links

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Wednesday hailed the Centre's decision to ban 118 mobile phone apps with Chinese links, saying the move is a morale booster for India.

While banning the apps, the government termed them prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and defence of the nation.

The banned apps include PUBG, Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Tencent Watchlist, FaceU, WeChat Reading and Tencent Weiyun, among others, according to an official statement.

"The banning of 118 more Chinese apps by the Union government today is a major milestone against misdeeds of China and will certainly boost the morale of the country," CAIT's NCR unit convener Sushil Kumar Jain said

He said CAIT, which has 40,000 trade associations and 7 crore members across India as members, has been leading an anti-China movement since June 10 this year.

"Banning more Chinese apps other than 59 already banned was all the more necessary as these apps were always a threat to the country's safety, security and sovereignty as also for the protection of individual data these apps were accruing through their usage," Jain said.

He said CAIT in a letter sent to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on August 24 had urged to ban more Chinese apps.

"On behalf of the business community of the country, we express our gratitude and compliments to the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking such an important step as per the wishes of the people of India," he added.