Tag: ministry of electronics and information technology

Government Said to Revoke Ban on LazyPay, Kissht, Other Fintech Firms

The government will revoke the ban imposed on fintech firms LazyPay and Kissht after representations were made by these companies, a senior official said on Friday.

The government last week ordered the blocking of 232 apps operated by overseas entities, including Chinese, for being involved in betting, gambling and unauthorised loan service.

Sources said that the government will revoke the ban on LazyPay and Kissht that were in the list of banned websites and apps after representations were made by these companies.

A senior government official confirmed the development.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued blocking orders on Saturday, based on an emergency request issued by a nodal officer of the home ministry, against 138 betting and gambling websites and 94 loan apps that were engaging in illegal money laundering and posing a threat to financial security of the country.

Fintech firms LazyPay, IndiaBulls Home Loans, and Kissht were among the list of blocked websites.

As per the list, MeitY issued orders to block lazypay.in, which is a subsidiary of Dutch investment firm Prosus.

The website www.indiabullshomeloans.com is operated by housing finance company Indiabulls Housing Finance, while Kissht.com is being operated by RBI-registered NBFC ONEMi Technology Solutions.

The other websites in the blocked list include buddyloan.com, cashtm.in, kreditbee.en.aptoide.com, faircent.com, true-balance.en.uptodown.com, and mpokket.en.aptoide.com.

Fintech firms mPokket, True Balance, and Kreditbee have denied any link with the banned platform.

“The reference of TrueBalance in the media story which mentions Meity’s target list of digital lenders is a clear case of impersonation. There is a proxy app present on the app store Uptodown with which we (TrueBalance) hold no direct or indirect connection.

“We hereby clarify that hitherto we have not received any official communication from the ministry,” Balancehero India- which operates True Balance, said.

Similarly KreditBee said Aptoide is a third-party App Store, with which it has no formal or informal partnership.

“We are speculating that it’s a proxy app on Aptoide, and investigating this further. Blocking of the Aptoide link is a favourable outcome for us,” the company said.

mPokket too has said that the app in the banned list is impersonating it and the firm has no link with the blocked platform.

Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series of smartphones was launched earlier this week and the South Korean firm’s high-end handsets have seen a few upgrades across all three models. What about the increase in pricing? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Nixi Offering Free .in Domain Names for the First Three Months as Part of Republic Day Celebrations

The National Internet Exchange of India (Nixi) is currently allowing people to register .in domain names for free. This deal is being offered as a part of the Republic Day celebrations that began on Thursday. The .in domain can be used for emails, websites, and other applications. This service currently has around 3 million people onboard. People can also get a .bharat domain name for targeting regional users. There is also an option to pick from over 22 regional Indian languages.

Nixi announced that as part of the 74th Republic Day celebrations, people can register .in domain names for free till January 29. Domains registered during this period will be free for the first three months. In addition, people can opt for a free personalised email ID with 10GB of space. This offer has been introduced to attract people towards the Digital India movement.

In related news, a new mobile operating system named BharOS was introduced recently. It is developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. BharOS is designed to focus on privacy and security. This project is funded by the Indian government for developing a free and open-source operating system.

It aims to reduce the dependency on foreign OS used in smartphones in India. BharOS is said to be a huge leap forward towards creating an indigenous ecosystem and promoting the use of locally developed technology. This OS is currently being provided to organisations with stringent privacy and security requirements. Notably, BharOS does not come with No Default Apps (NDA). Users can allow only trusted apps to access certain features or data on their devices.

BharOS was developed by JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops), a Section 8 (Not for Profit) Company established by IIT Madras. It is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS).

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Government to Hold Discussions With Stakeholders on PIB Fact Checks for Social Media in February: MoS IT

Amid outrage over a plan to give powers to its arm PIB to police fake news on social media, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said that the government will next month hold discussions with stakeholders before the proposal is implemented.

The minister said that the rules for regulating online gaming are expected to be notified by January 31 after which these will be tabled in Parliament.

“We will hold a separate consultation (on PIB fact check) sometime early next month,” Chandrasekhar said when asked about clarification on the proposed amendment to the IT rules 2021.

Chandrasekhar also said that the consultation on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act is over and it is being processed within the realms of the government for notification.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) last week released a modification to the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which it had previously released for public consultation.

While the consultation is largely going on for framing rules for online gaming, it added a small note in the due diligence section for the removal of content identified as false, fake or misleading by the PIB or any government-authorised agency.

Under the proposed amendment, the due diligence by intermediaries shall include making such efforts to not upload, publish, transmit or share information identified as fake or false by the Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau, which takes cognizance of fake information both suo motu and by way of queries sent by citizens on its portal or through e-mail and WhatsApp and responds with correct information when the same pertains to the government.

The determination of fake news cannot be in the sole hands of the government and will result in the censorship of the press, the Guild said in a statement here, voicing “deep concern” over the draft amendment to the Information Technology (IT) Rules.

An official source, who did not wish to be named, said that the option of fact check by PIB or any other government authorised agency was added in the proposed amendment after discussion with industry.

“Intermediaries, mainly social media companies, asked Meity to provide notified fact check for misinformation. We are entering into a regime where all intermediaries and fact checkers need to have accountability,” the official said.

He said that intermediaries are the ones who have to be regulated and they can’t put in place fact checkers.

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Esports Now Recognised as Part of Multi-Sport Event, to Be Taken Care by Department of Sports: Government

The Government of India on Tuesday gave Esports a major boost by integrating it with mainline sports disciplines in the country.

The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in exercise of the powers “conferred by clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution” amended the rules governing Esports and asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Sports Ministry to include “e-Sports as part of multi-sports events”.

There had been a growing demand for Esports to be included in the curriculum of multi-discipline events after it was included in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games as a demonstration sport, meaning medals won in the sport were not counted in the official overall medals tally.

But following the President’s notification, issued on December 23, that IT Ministry will be the nodal agency for online gaming-related matters and the sports ministry will have to include it in its curriculum, it has come as shot in the arm for Esports enthusiasts.

The International Olympic Association (IOC) too is going big on popularising e-Sport with Singapore being confirmed to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in June next year.

This marks the next big step in supporting the development and integration of virtual sports with the Olympic movement and engaging further with competitive gamers.

The IOC had said in November this year that the Olympic Esports Week would showcase the best of virtual sports — hybrid physical and simulated sports — in the four-day festival from June 22 to 25, including exhibiting the latest technologies, panel discussions, education sessions and show matches.

IOC President Thomas Bach had said last month that the inaugural Olympic Esports Week would mark an important milestone “in our ambition to support the growth of virtual sports within the Olympic Movement”.

The Indian DOTA 2 team had clinched bronze at the first Commonwealth Esports Championship held in Birmingham in August defeating New Zealand.

The sport will make its debut at the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China next year.

Reacting to the report of its inclusion as a mainline sport, Lokesh Suji, director, Esports Federation of India and vice-president of Asian Esports Federation, said the efforts of the fraternity had finally borne fruit.

“We have been constantly working on establishing the difference between esports and iGaming, and finally, our efforts have been fulfilled. We welcome this announcement by our government, which will open new avenues to pour in more investment opportunities in this booming industry.

“From now onwards, we will have to build proper infrastructure, training facilities and coaching for our young esports athletes. Only a short time until we see esports being placed in the same league as cricket, football, basketball, etc. and having similar fan power, scale and craze,” said Suji.

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