Amid growing border tensions in Ladakh over the recent escalation of the Chinese forces, the Indian government has on Wednesday banned 118 more Chinese applications from the country and the ban includes the most popular video game application - Player Unknown Battleground, known as PUBG, which had attained a major outreach among the young population in India. 

The ban on PUBG and other 117 apps has been dubbed as the second episode of the digital strike of the Central government against the Chinese aggression as earlier, the government had banned dozens of applications including TikTok, days after the border skirmish in Ladakh had killed 20 Indian soldiers. 
 
According to the reports, on the banning of PUBG and 117 other applications, the government said that it is doing under section 69A of the Information Technology Act and with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Rules 2009. The government stated that the 118 apps have been banned from the country in the view of the emergent nature of threats.

Government blocks 118 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order: Govt of India

PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work & WeChat reading are among the banned mobile apps. pic.twitter.com/VWrg3WUnO8

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2020

The government added that there has been information that these applications are engaged in activities that are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity, defence, security, and public order in the nation. The statement from the IT ministry said the Indian government has decided to block the usage of certain apps, used in both mobile and non-mobile internet-enabled devices. 

The statement read that this move of banning these apps would safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure the safety, security, and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace. The government has asserted that the decision was taken after the Home Ministry and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center had sent recommendations for banning these malicious applications. 

According to ANI, along with PUBG, some of the popular applications like Baidu, Music-MP3 player, WeChat, Work, Ludo have been banned and the order includes several editing, social, and gaming applications. In June this year, India has banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, UC Browser, Weibo, Baidu Map, and CamScanner were banned under the same grounds of being prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country.

Wednesday's order is the second episode of the digital strike against the nuclear-armed neighbor and reports say PUBG has been one of the fast-growing gaming applications in India as 50 million gamers in the country had played the game in 2019.

Last year, PUBG Mobile has offered Rs 4.5 crores as part of the prize pools and it also has conducted PUBG Mobile India series 2019, PUBG Mobile India tour 2019, and PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 and these gaming tournaments are brand new in the Indian online gaming arena and the prize pool of Rs 4.5 crore has been seen as the unprecedented investment in the Indian gaming ecosystem which had apparently captured how the game, designed by Bluehole game company, has dominated and glued among the young population of India across the country.