After Central Govt's Intervention, Google Begins Restoring Delisted Indian Apps

After the intervention by Union Minister of Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Google is reportedly in the process of restoring all apps.

“We have told [Google] that it must support India’s start-up ecosystem. They have already started re-listing the apps,” Vaishnaw told HT.

“Google has agreed to cooperate. ... I had a conversation with Google last night [Friday] when I first learnt of this. I have spoken to them 4-5 times today,” he said.

The minister has called a meeting with Google on Monday - Government sources were quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The saga began after Google, on Friday evening, delisted 10 Indian apps, including Naukri.com and 99acres, from the Google Play Store citing non-compliance with Google's payment policies. Earlier in the day, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed strong disapproval of Google's action.

"India is very clear, our policy is very clear...our start-ups will get the protection that they need. I have already called Google, I have already called the app developers which have been delisted, we will be meeting them next week. This cannot be permitted. This kind of de-listing cannot be permitted," Vaishnaw told PTI.

The minister highlighted that India has successfully developed a robust startup ecosystem with over one lakh startups and over 100 unicorns emerging in the last decade. He emphasized the need to fully direct the energy of the country's youth and entrepreneurs and asserted that it should not be subject to the regulations imposed by major tech companies.

"I will be telling Google...Our entrepreneurial energy...startups, look at the whole startup India programme, 10 years back we had practically nothing and today we have more than 1,00,000 startups, more than 100 unicorns...this is something...the energy of our youth, the energy of our entrepreneurs, energy of our talented people that has to be channelised fully well, it cannot be left to the policies of any big tech," Vaishnaw said.

Google justified its action by stating, "After giving these developers more than three years to prepare, including three weeks after the Supreme Court’s order, we are taking necessary steps to ensure our policies are applied consistently across the ecosystem." At the heart of the matter lies the Google Play Billing System (GPBS) and Google's payment policies for Android apps. These policies initially mandated developers to exclusively utilize GPBS for the sale of all digital goods and services through the in-app billing system.