CAIT Urges Probe into Chinese Investment in 141 Indian Startups

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has written a letter to the Government minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, urging an investigation into Chinese investments in 141 Indian startups.

The companies in the listing are across sectors similar food delivery, e-commerce, logistics, digital payments, travel, transport, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. Popular brands in question include Flipkart, Paytm, Ola, Swiggy, Zomato, Byju's, ShareChat, Oyo Rooms, DailyHunt, MX Player, Quikr, and Hike among others.

The CAIT is asking the government to investigate several aspects indicating Chinese interest. This includes the Chinese investment command ratio in Indian companies, data storage policies, use of Chinese applied science and its extent, and the possibility of in-built spying capabilities in Chinese technology.

"Information technology looks like a planned strategy past various Chinese companies to acquire vital data of Indian people and an exercise in the management to dominate diverse Indian economic centres by virtue of their investments. Therefore, an immediate management for an in-depth investigation into the working and business organization module of Indian startups covering the above mentioned concerns is all the more than necessary," wrote CAIT.

CAIT alleges that People's republic of china is involved in espionage activities through various tactics including cyber spying, monitoring dissidents, and signal intelligence. It points out that several cases of Chinese involvement in figurer intrusions were reported in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, the U.Due south, and Germany.

In its letter, CAIT as well mentions that Chinese investments in Indian companies should be brought in the public domain. In improver, the traders' trunk wants all future overseas investments to be through the government route.