On 2nd September 2020, India banned another set of 118 foreign apps seeing how on the basis of the available information, these were able to engage in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence & security of the state and public order.

Interestingly, of these 118 apps that India decided to block, 36 are gaming apps, making up the biggest chunk of nearly 30.5 percent of the total. PUBG, 117 More Chinese Apps Banned: China Concerned, Says 'India's Ban Violates Legal Interests of Chinese Investors And Service Providers'.

1) Ban on Gaming Apps & PM Modi's 'Make In India' Call

Incidentally, in the recent edition of PM Modi's programme 'Mann Ki Baat', the Prime Minister called out to young and talented minds in India to begin developing games, toys, apps etc indigenously. Now, blocking of these 36 popular foreign gaming apps from the Indian cyber territory has certainly given them a more level playing field, besides a strong backing from the government.

Daily Utility Apps: The Second Largest Chunk

After gaming apps, daily utility apps have the second highest number. These foreign daily utility apps make up nearly 12.7 percent of the total 118 banned apps. This category consists of apps providing facilities like flashlight, note-keeping, file management, data sharing etc. APUS Flashlight, InNote, Alipay, U-Dictionary are some such apps that now stand banned in India.

Numbers of Apps Banned in India:

Banned Apps: Percentage of Privacy Protection & Security Cleanup Apps

Indian IT Ministry said that it received many complaints from various sources about misuse of these mobile apps for "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers having an 'outside-India' locations". Many of these apps are based on privacy protection, security and cleanup-based facilities and thus, are able to attract a lot of Internet users. It was found that out of these 118 apps blocked by Indian government, nearly 7 percent were privacy protection apps while 4 percent were apps based on phone security and cleanup facility. Is PUBG a Chinese App? Here's Everything You Need to About Developers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Gaming App Banned in India.

Cloud Sharing, Photo-Editing, Dating & Other Miscellaneous Apps

These apps are very popular among students, children and youngsters. These get a lot of downloads and pose greater risks of data leakage. Out of the recently banned apps, 9 percent were photo-editing apps, 10% were dating apps, 12 percent were music and beauty-based apps while 13 percent were other miscellaneous apps. Popular app 'Tencent Weiyun' for cloud sharing has also been banned.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 04, 2020 06:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).