‘Government of India blocks 320 mobile apps for the safety of users’

To provide safe, reliable and accountable internet to the users, 320 mobile apps have been blocked so far in the country. The action has been taken under the Information Technology (IT) Act. The Central Government gave this information in the Parliament on Wednesday. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Prakash said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that these mobile applications have been blocked keeping in mind the sovereignty, integrity, defense and security of the country. He said that 49 apps were blocked again in February. These were the apps which were relaunched after rebranding.

The minister said that in order to ensure safe, reliable and accountable internet for users, the government has so far blocked 320 mobile applications under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000. In response to another question, he said that between April 2000 and December 2021, the country has received foreign direct investment (FDI) of only $ 2.45 billion (about Rs 18,701 crore) from China.

Som Prakash said that China ranked 20th in total FDI equity flow in the country during April 2000 to December 2021. Its stake is only 0.43 percent with $2.45 billion. In a separate reply, the minister said that according to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and the Home Ministry, they have received proposals for industrial investment worth about Rs 50,000 crore.

It is noteworthy that Indian users spend a lot of time on mobile. A big part of this are apps. In the year 2021, Indian smartphone users spent about 4.7 hours of their daily time on mobile phones, information about which is given in the report of mobile app analytics platform App Annie. India has also secured second position in the list of top 20 mobile markets in terms of app downloads. Finance apps are quite popular in India, receiving more than 1 billion downloads.

The report shows that in the year 2021, smartphone users in India spent about 4.7 hours per day on their devices, which was 4.5 hours per day in the year 2020 and up to 3.7 hours in the year 2019. However, smartphone users from Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea came ahead of India in this list. According to the report, people of these countries spend 5 or more hours daily on their mobile phones.