Invasion and application

 Innumerable number of border incidents have taken place during the past year or so along the Indo-China border and the fact that they didn’t make so much news was probably because no shots were fired. Both Indian armed forces and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers grappled and boxed each other. The Chinese have always been land grabbing, be it over Bhutanese land at Doklam, or Aksai Chin in addition to around 640 square miles encroached at Ladakh and in total, has forcibly occupied around 38,000 square kilometres of Indian territory, especially after 1962. Over five decades have passed and India and China have not fought another war though China still claims areas in Ladakh, Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, portions of Sikkim, and large chunk of Arunachal Pradesh. Today both India and China are nuclear powers and also economic giants. The disinclination of using nuclear bombs is off the table but that has not deterred China from grabbing Indian territories. In the light of the changed situation, India has also decided that the best way to hit the Chinese is with economic bullets. Thus, India has decided to ban Chinese apps as an effective way to impose costs on China for its actions at the border. India has banned 59 apps with Chinese links, including the hugely popular TikTok and UC Browser, for engaging in "activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order". It is not that India suddenly decided to ban Chinese apps because of the aggression of its neighbour. In fact, long before the border incidents, there have been serious concerns globally over use of Chinese apps due to security reasons. China has been accused of using apps to “steal information” from various countries – both economic and military. A majority of these apps were popular among India’s 500 million internet users. India is China’s biggest external market for apps such as TikTok and UC Browser. While India represents a relatively small source of revenue for Chinese apps, it is still its fastest growing consumer internet market in the world, with 19 billion downloads in 2019. That makes India as the second largest market for app downloads. The question is whether India has the alternatives to these apps that can quickly fill the space vacated by the Chinese apps? India does have its desi-created apps for video uploads such as: Chingari: a short video app like TikTok, available for Android and iOS in multiple Indian languages; Roposo: a content sharing and video creation app available in more than 10 Indian languages. It offers a TV-like experience for users and was developed by three IIT Delhi Alumni. Then there is the upcoming Jio Browser:a lightweight browser developed by Reliance Jio; Bharat Browser: created by the Bengaluru-based startup BlueSky Inventions etc. E-commerce applications include –Myntra founded in 2007 as an Indian fashion e-commerce company but was sold to Flipkart in 2015.Flipkart: founded in 2007 and now acquired by Walmart. Snapdeal: an e-commerce company started as a daily deals platform in 2010 but expanded into an online marketplace in 2011. What this shows is that though India may worry about Chinese invasion, yet it can withstand Chinese applications.