Heena Sharma Blog

China on Wednesday vetoed and put a hold on a proposal at United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to put a ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed's chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. This was the fourth time China blocked such a move. The hold can last up to nine months, after which China can use its veto power to formally block/terminate the proposal. A UNSC ban would have subjected Masood Azhar to travel ban, assets freeze and an arms embargo. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy said that "the cost of gifting UNSC seat to China in 1950 is haunting us." The government said it would pursue 'all available avenues' to bring terrorists to justice. However, angry Indians took to Twitter seeking a boycott of Chinese products in India. These included Chinese smartphone brands like Xiaomi and applications like TikTok. Article Source -> Business Standard

Last month, Sharechat, a top vernacular content sharing platform, sued new entrant Helo for using its copying design and indulging in unfair competition. Helo, an app by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, is a lot like Sharechat. Both have a timeline and content sharing features that, brashly put, resemble Instagram. But the moot here is local languages - over two dozens of them - and a razor-sharp focus on user-generated content that works with this target group. Facebook’s and Google’s of the world have been trying this for long, so have a few local ones, but when it comes to targeting the non-English speaking users in India, Chinese apps have been far more successful than anyone else. In the last 18 months, at least half a dozen apps have entered the Indian market including players such as Helo, Like, Clip, Tik Tok, Kwai and Vigo Video with a focus on either of the three categories-- social media and content sharing, news, or user-generated video. Interestingly, except...