Central government bans more than 200 lending and betting apps with Chinese links

In a big campaign against loan and lending apps, the central government has ordered to ban 138 betting and 94 lending apps related to China. This action has been taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. According to reports, the government started scrutiny of many Chinese apps about six months ago. It was revealed that these apps have personal information of the people of the country.

Many complaints of illegal extortion and harassment of people were received against these apps. These apps give loans of small amounts to people and charge heavy interest on them. It has been said in the report that behind these apps are Chinese citizens who run their illegal business by making people from India as directors. After taking a loan from these apps, when people face difficulty in paying the interest on it, then people are harassed with threats like leaking their personal information.

This issue came into limelight after cases of some people in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana committing suicide after taking loans from these apps or losing money on betting apps. States like Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha had requested the Home Ministry to take action against these apps. Last year, the government asked internet search engine Google to implement strict rules to stop the use of illegal lending apps. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had directed Google to curb these apps. After increasing cases of fraud in the digital lending segment, RBI asked the lenders to provide digital lending services. Asked to make strict rules.

Its purpose was to protect borrowers from fraud. Google has changed its Store Developer Program policy for financial services apps. This includes additional conditions for personal loan apps. To curb illegal digital lending platforms, the government and RBI have asked Google to increase scrutiny and ensure that only loan apps approved by the regulator are available for download on Google Play Store.