A day following the removal of numerous prominent Indian applications from its Play Store, Google decided to reinstate them on Saturday following a meeting with Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The development comes as some applications like Naukri, 99acres, and Naukrigulf are already back on the Play Store.

The action comes after Vaishnaw in a strong stance said that the delisting of apps from Google Play Store is not permitted. “India is very clear, our policy is very clear...our startups will get the protection that they need," the minister had said. 

“I have already called Google...I have already called the app developers who have been delisted, we will be meeting them next week. This cannot be permitted…This kind of delisting cannot be permitted,” Vaishnaw added.

The California-headquartered tech giant decided to remove 10 mobile applications from its Play Store on Friday accusing the companies behind them of “non-compliance with billing policies.” The delisted applications included some well-known names like Bharatmatrimony, Shaadi.com, Naukri, etc.

Indian corporate leaders strongly criticized Google's actions, condemning them as "anti-competitive." In response, they urged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to intervene and address what they perceived as unfair behaviour by the technology company.

Bharat Matrimony founder Murugavel Janakiraman had described the move as a "dark day" for the Internet in India, Kuku FM Co-founder Vinod Kumar Meena in a statement had said that Google was behaving like a 'monopoly'.

“I have raised concerns on the dominance of Google in the past, it controls more than 90 percent of the app ecosystem in India, the fact that they are a vertically integrated large company, we are concerned that their dominance does stifle competitions and startups, and it can be misused against startups, and there are some legitimate concerns that the government has,” Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said. 

The issue centers around Google's billing policy, wherein the tech giant imposes a fee ranging from 11% to 26% on in-app payments. Indian corporate leaders have expressed their opposition to these charges, registering a complaint with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) regarding what they consider to be unjust practices.

Google has claimed that the fee it is charging from the applications listed on Play Store is the lowest among the major markets of the world. Moreover, the tech giant claims that the company is charging fees only on the sale of digital goods, which accounts for less than 3% of developers in India.

Leaders of Indian startups have labeled this action as another instance of unfair practices by the U.S. tech giant. Some have even discussed the possibility of establishing India's own mobile application store as an alternative to reduce dependency on foreign platforms.

Image source: Hindustan Times