PUBG Mobile, a wildly popular game in India, is among 118 more Chinese apps blocked by the government amid fresh tension over China's provocation in Ladakh, PTI and NDTV reported.

The move was in the interest of India's sovereignty and integrity, defence and security, the government said in a statement.

There are close to 33 million active PUBG players in India, according to reports. The game clocks some 13 million daily users, the website said.

The banned apps include Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Tencent Watchlist, FaceU, WeChat Reading and Tencent Weiyun, besides PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite, according to an official statement.

All these banned apps have Chinese links, sources said.

The Centre had earlier banned a number of Chinese apps, including TikTok and UC Browser.

"Government blocks 118 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order," the statement said.

This move, it said, would safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users.

It said the IT Ministry had received complaints from various sources, including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms, for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data to servers outside India.

"The compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures," said the statement.

The home ministry's cybercrime centre had also recommended blocking these "malicious apps", the government said.

The statement referred to bipartisan concerns flagged by various public representatives both in parliament and outside, adding that there had been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against apps "that harm India's sovereignty as well as the privacy of our citizens", said NDTV.