India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has begun a process to ban and block 138 betting apps and 94 loan lending apps with Chinese links.
Under Section 69 of India’s IT law, the government is allowed to block public access to content in the interest of national security, among other reasons. Orders issued under the section are generally confidential in nature.
According to a report by Economic times, the government has said that the apps has been banned as they contain materials “deleterious” to the sovereignty and integrity of India.
Since the start of political tensions between India and China in 2020, India has already banned popular Chinese apps including TikTok and WeChat messenger.
This step is the latest in a series of government efforts to crack down on shark loan apps and other services that are posing a threat to the nation’s citizens.
The Reserve Bank of India introduced uncompromising rules for digital lending firms last year, recommending firms provide more transparency and control to customers.
According to the new rules, lenders are not permitted to increase a customer’s credit limit without obtaining their consent and are required to disclose the annual loan rate in explicit terms. Digital lending apps are also mandated to take prior explicit consent from customers before collecting any data and all such requests should be “need-based.”
Worldtoday.com 