Between July and August, India banned a total of 233 apps amid the ongoing border tension with China. While diplomatic talks to resolve the tensions have been continuing, India has begun limiting its dependency on foreign applications, citing data security concerns.

India’s Minister of Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday posted a minute-long video on Twitter revealing that out of nearly 7,000 Indian-made apps that reached the government for review, 24 have been carefully handpicked for their potential to go global.

Restating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest attempt to curb the dependency on foreign goods and services, Prasad announced the selection of the 24 India-made apps calling it a “very good news”.

The names and details of the 24 apps that the government has reviewed have not been released.

Given the ongoing #BoycottMadeInChina movement in India, many netizens applauded Prasad’s announcement.

Sir, we as citizen of this country appreciate and congratulate for you and honourable PM for banning these apps. Also it is heartening to note that 24 apps selected are of global quality. Congratulations. I am sure more will follow.— Vimal Nagpal (@nagpal_vimal) September 8, 2020

​While app developers have been sharing their creations with the government, India recently conducted two tech innovation competitions -- Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2020 and the Made in India App Innovation Challenge.

The competitions witnessed thousands of participants from across India who nominated a wide range of apps and digital tools covering several categories from social networking to internet browsing and shopping.

India is the world’s second largest market in terms of internet usage and smartphones with over 333 million and 500 million users respectively.

Due to the ongoing border disputes, India has banned a total of 233 Chinese apps including popular ones like TikTok and PUBG, citing national security reasons.

For last five months, India and China have been blaming each other for violating the 4,057 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) that demarcates the two nations. On 16 June, India lost 20 Indian soldiers in brutal hand-to-hand combat with China's People's Liberation Army.