INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Narendra Modi government banned the use of 224 smart phone applications in the wake of ongoing India-China military standoff along the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh
Now, it is in the process of identifying the "best Indian app" under various digital initiatives.The government informed Parliament on
Wednesday that it was viewing around 7,000 applications received by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
The ministry will identify best Indian apps for the citizens.The MeitY informed Parliament that the smart phone applications, including
Chinese apps such as TikTok, Helo and WeChat under the provisions of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 in the interest of
"sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and security of State".The MeitY, in partnership with the Atal Innovation Mission of
Niti Aayog, launched Digital India Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge to identify the best Indian Apps that are already being used by
citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class Apps in their respective categories.A total of 6,940 applications under
various categories have been received
The ministry said the government launches apps from time to time for the citizens to promote its Digital India initiative.Further, the
government has also shared data on number of its websites that were hacked in recent times
The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which tracks such cases, reported a total number of 54 websites belonging to the government
ministries or departments at central and state levels were hacked in 2019
The corresponding number for this year (till August) stood at 37.Further, a total number of 15 instances of insecure data hosting of
government website-based services were reported in 2020 (till August)
Remedial measures were suggested to owners of affected websites and services.But the concerned ministry has said that cyber security mock
drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations in government and
critical sectors.A total of 49 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 434 organisations from different states and sectors
such as Finance, Defence, Power, Telecom, Transport, Energy, Space, and IT/ITeS participated.The Modi government set up 'MeitY Start-up
Hub'' (MSH) for promoting technology innovation and start-ups
The mandate of MSH is to build a favourable innovation ecosystem by bringing together various technology stakeholders.Through MSH portal,
more than 2,000 tech startups, 350 incubators, 285 mentors, 22 domain specific Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and 25 industry partners have
been connected for facilitating criss-crossing of technology resources, sharing best practices and ideas across the entire innovation and
startup ecosystem.| PUBG Mobile among latest Chinese apps banned in India: Full list here
