Much ado about banning Chinese apps

IN PERSPECTIVE

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Indian techies and start-ups to come up with innovative mobile applications as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Innovation Challenge. This comes in the backdrop of the government banning 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok and Helo, among others. These apps have been extremely popular in the country and have helped thousands of Indian entertainers and artists gather millions of followers and enjoy celebrity status. A moot question for us to ponder over is, with over our four million-strong IT workforce and being the ‘IT capital of the world’, why don’t we have top class Indian apps in our own country and in other countries?

Another question: Is the ban on Chinese apps a precedent? Will we ban Google, Facebook and others, should we have a rough relationship with the US in the future? Banning apps by itself will not solve the larger challenges faced by India’s digital ecosystem. Before we look at the areas for the government to focus on, let us understand the impact of the ban on the Chinese companies.

With India accounting for 70-90% of their global subscriber base, Chinese companies that provide apps like ShareIt, UCBrowser, Camscanner, Likee and TikTok are sure to be impacted. This will also impact thousands of their employees in India, adding to the unemployment challenges in the country due to the Covid-19 situation. As per the latest reports, the Chinese companies are still hopeful that the Indian government will revoke the ban.

Alternative Apps

Social media is already abuzz with alternative “made in India” apps. The key is for these apps to match the banned apps in terms of user experience. Failing which, end-users will find alternative methods, like using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access the banned apps.

India could learn from countries like Russia and China when it comes to encouraging a world-class app ecosystem. China has banned Google, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc., and the Chinese government supported the local app ecosystem. Baidu, Alibaba and WeChat are popular with over 80% subscribers in the country. Russia also has been successful in developing an app ecosystem that provides best-in-class social networking apps like VK (equivalent of Facebook) and a search engine like Yandex (similar to Google).

The present situation provides a great opportunity for top-class apps from India. Perhaps the government should come up with a 2025 vision of getting at least five of the top 10 apps in the world to be from India? This is certainly not an outrageous thought in a country that can develop Aadhaar and Aarogya Setu, which demonstrate capability to deploy large-scale digital implementations.

Beyond the present app challenge initiative, the government would do well to task the top technology institutions based on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) to create world-class apps. As part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat and the VocalForLocal movement, the government should earmark a budget to encourage start-ups.

Internet infra

While a clear indigenous app ecosystem is the need of the hour, there are a few areas that need immediate attention from the government. India’s mobile data rates are pathetic. Sample this: As per the June 2020 Speedtest global index report, India with about 12 Mbps data rate, stands at 129th position amongst 138 countries. It is interesting that countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal fare better than India on this count. While South Korea tops the list with 107 Mbps, China ranks No 3 with 103 Mbps average speed.

Why is India lagging? It is mainly due to poor internet infrastructure. Mindless bidding during past spectrum auctions meant that many of the telcos soon filed for bankruptcy. If we recollect, just 10 years ago, there were 10-12 operators. Now, we are reduced to a handful. With the government-owned BSNL fast losing its market share, we are at the mercy of the private telcos. The overall debt in the telecom sector means that these telcos are not able to upgrade their infrastructure. The government would do well to reduce the taxes and regulatory levies imposed on the telcos. Presently, Indian telcos pay over 25% (including GST, licence fees, etc) of their gross revenue as tax, compared to less than 10% in other countries.

Even on fixed line broadband, India fares very poorly compared with the other countries. Broadband has largely remained an urban phenomenon. Our progress in getting rural broadband infrastructure with BharatNet has been pathetic. The target to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats has been constantly delayed and is now expected to be completed by 2022. If we had all the villages connected through fibre optic network by now, remote learning for the students in the rural hinterland could have been smooth during the present pandemic.

Since India lacks a strong fibre optic backbone, our ability to rapidly move into 5G technology will be a challenge.

Meanwhile, India needs a clear policy on data privacy and data storage. While the data privacy issues raised over the Aarogya Setu app have subsided, we need strong regulatory oversight and the Personal Data Protection (PDP) law should be passed by Parliament soon. The government should provide a policy on data processing and storage, specifying what data can be processed outside the country, while strictly enforcing compliance.

Developing alternative apps to counter the banned Chinese apps only solves a part of the overall challenges faced by India’s digital ecosystem. To address the Indian consumers’ increasing digital demands, a strong internet infrastructure and data storage and privacy policies are much needed.

(The writer is an ICT professional and columnist based in Bengaluru)