Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Warns Google: ‘Delisting Of Apps Not Permitted’

New Delhi: The Central government has taken a strong stance against Google for removing some Indian apps over a dispute about payment of service fee.

Union Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that delisting of the apps from Google Play Store “is not permitted” and called a meeting between Google and the startups in question next week to resolve the matter.

The startup ecosystem is the key to Indian economy and their fate cannot be left to any big tech to decide, Vaishnaw told PTI.

“India is very clear, our policy is very clear… our startups will get the protection that they need. I have already called Google and 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 said.

India has a strong startup ecosystem with over one lakh startups, with over 100 unicorns in the span of a decade, he said.

“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 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,” the Union minister asserted.

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc recently sent a notice to 10 companies for non-payment of service fee to the US-based tech company, mainly targeting matrimony and dating apps in India.

Four of these apps were removed from Play Store on Saturday.