Earlier this week, MeitY issued orders to block as many as 94 Chinese loan apps and 138 betting apps for alleged laundering illicit money laundering and posing a "threat to the financial security of the nation."
After the Ministry of Home Affairs alerted the IT ministry, the blocking orders were initiated against the apps on an urgent and emergency basis.
As per Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the intermediaries must provide information under its control or assistance to authorised government agency within seventy-two hours of receiving an order.
The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has shared a list of Digital Lending Apps (DLAs) being used by Regulated Entities (REs) with the app stores, requesting them to not feature lending apps other than those mentioned in the list, the finance ministry said in the Parliament on February 7.
The list has been forwarded by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the ministry seeking measures to prevent loan apps run by unregulated entities from making their way to the app stores, it added.