"MeitY does not grant permission for starting of any websites / mobile Apps / service. Accordingly, MeitY has not granted permission to PUBG / PUBG mobile India." That is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's full response to MediaNama's RTI application with multiple questions on whether PUBG Mobile India's creators have asked for, and received, its blessing to operate. PUBG Mobile India's Korean publishers have long sought to assure the government that control of the application is no longer in the Chinese company Tencent's hands, and that a deal with Microsoft protects the government's supposed concern for user data; to top it all off, Krafton Inc., which owns the PUBG IP, censored the game to remove gory visuals, another apparent concern the government seems to have had. In spite of all this, the IT Ministry, which banned the Tencent version of the game, has signalled that it wouldn't like PUBG Mobile India to operate. Of course, now that control of the game's publishing has been handed over to Krafton, which announced a large investment of US$100 million among other sops to lure an approval out of the government. The company has long tried to get a nod from MEITY, which has refused to do so. We have reached out to Krafton/PUBG Corporation India for comment. GEM Esports on Tuesday published a response to a different RTI application, in which MEITY simply stated that they have not approved PUBG Mobile. This story is based on a different application, whose text…
