No proposal to lift TikTok ban in India, says IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

There is no proposal to lift the ban on the popular short video app TikTok in India, Minister for IT, Information and Broadcasting and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw told Moneycontrol in an interview.

"There is absolutely no proposal which has come from any quarters," Vaishnaw clarified amid growing speculation that the short-video app owned by Chinese technology giant ByteDance could make a comeback in India as relations between New Delhi and Beijing begin to thaw.

Last month, TikTok’s website was also briefly accessible to users on some broadband and mobile networks such as Airtel Broadband and Vodafone. TikTok was among the first wave of Chinese apps banned in June 2020, when the government blocked 59 apps citing national security concerns.

Following the order, the apps were taken down by Apple and Google from their respective mobile app stores, and subsequently, the ban on TikTok was made permanent by Centre in January 2021. Prior to this, India was TikTok's biggest market with over 200 million users.

The Centre had also suspended ByteDance’s other apps, including the social media platform Helo and the video editing app CapCut, in June 2020. ByteDance later shut down its music streaming service Resso in India after the app was removed from Google Play and the Apple App Store under a government order, Moneycontrol reported in January 2024.

Read More: India engaging with US, global firms to protect IT jobs, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Will Chinese Investors Return?

When asked about the possibility of Chinese investors coming back to India’s tech sector, Vaishnaw said, “We will see as it happens.”

“Policies will be clearly shared with everybody. We are a very transparent country,” the minister said.

Until 2020, Chinese investors such as Tencent, Alibaba, Ant Financial and Shunwei Capital were among the largest backers of the Indian startup ecosystem, collectively investing billions in domestic startups across e-commerce, fintech, food delivery, mobility, digital content and edtech.

In April 2020, the government tightened the FDI policy through Press Note 3, requiring prior approval for investments from countries sharing a land border with India. This move made Chinese investments significantly harder, prompting several Indian startups to reduce stake or offer exit to investors, and look for alternative sources of capital.

On the prospect of India and China collaborating in semiconductor manufacturing or electronics supply chain, Vaishnaw said the global value chain is a natural characteristic of the semiconductor industry.

"We do respect this reality of the global value chain, and we respect the way this industry works. So, wherever the value is added, finally the benefits should come to our people, benefits should come to our industry," he said.

Last week, Moneycontrol reported that Indian and Chinese companies are stepping up discussions for joint ventures and technology partnerships in electronics manufacturing, following efforts by both governments to strengthen engagement amid pressures on global supply chains caused by US President Trump’s tariffs.

Most of the partnerships being explored are in the electronics components space, where Indian manufacturers are seeking competitive commercial tie-ups with Chinese majors to bring in technology, scale and cost advantages.