Traders’ body calls for investigation into Chinese investments in Indian start-ups

Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to start investigating Chinese investments in Indian start-ups to ensure that the collected data is not transferred to the Chinese investors and that there is no threat to national security. It has also called for an investigation of Chinese companies with manufacturing plants in India on similar grounds. PTI first reported this.

CAIT also sent a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking for the Chinese investments in Indian start-ups and Chinese companies’ manufacturing plants in India to be investigated. The letter cites major companies such as Flipkart, Paytm.com [sic], Swiggy, Ola, OYO, Zomato, Policybazaar, BigBasket, Delhivery, MakeMyTrip, Dream 11, Hike, Snapdeal, Udaan, Lenskart.com, Byjus Classes and Citrus Tech that have benefited from Chinese investments. It says that companies such as Alibaba and Tencent are “lead investors in many of these startups”. Praveen Khandelwal, the national secretary-general of CAIT, told MediaNama that the same letter was also sent to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

The body has also supported the Indian government’s decision to ban 59 Chinese apps.