No Purchase Of 'Made In China' Goods On Government's E-Marketplace: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan Directs Officials

Joining the backlash against China, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday (29 June) issued the directives to officials to not purchase anything 'Made in China' from Government's e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, reports Economic Times.

The directive, issued in the form of an office memorandum, will apply to all the officials and departments including the public sector units which comes under the ministries led by Ram Vilas Paswan.

These entities include Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC).

It should be noted that the directive clearly stated that not only from GeM, but Made in China goods should not be procured even from other sources.

The move came on the same day when the Government issued the notification banning 59 widely-used Chinese smartphone applications, including TikTok, Helo, UC Browser and Shareit among others, given the security challenges posed by them.

As per a government release, these apps were engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.

This order was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) after invoking powers vested to it under 69A of the IT act.