Google restores Indian apps after intervention by Centre: Report

Google on Saturday restored all Indian apps it had removed, following intervention by the Narendra Modi government, ANI reported. Union minister of electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw has called a meeting with the search engine giant on Monday.The action comes after Vaishnaw in a strong stance said that the delisting of apps from Google Play Store is not permitted. “India is very clear, our policy is very clear...our startups will get the protection that they need," the minister had said. “I have already called Google...I have already called the app developers who have been delisted, we will be meeting them next week. This cannot be permitted…This kind of delisting cannot be permitted," Vaishnaw added.On Saturday, Google had informed the bourses that five apps from Info Edge i.e Naukri.com, Naukri Recruiter, Naukrigulf, 99acres and Shiksha had been delisted from the Play Store. The search engine giant had cracked down on apps from 10 Indian developers for not complying with the payments policy.Searches on Google Play Store had revealed that apps like Shaadi, Matrimony.com, Bharat Matrimony, Altt Balaji, Kuku FM were among the apps removed by the tech giant. Bharat Matrimony founder Murugavel Janakiraman had described the move as "dark day" for the Internet in India, Kuku FM Co-founder Vinod Kumar Meena in a statement had said that Google was behaving like a 'monopoly'.“I have raised concerns on the dominance of Google in the past, it controls more than 90 per cent of the app ecosystem in India, the fact that they are a vertically integrated large company, we are concerned that their dominance does stifle competitions and startups, and it can be misused against startups, and there are some legitimate concerns that the government has,” Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said. The government and court has to look whether this particular incident trespasses into that territory of abuse and misuse, the minister had added.