Google has removed India from the list of supported countries from where developers can publish paid apps. It was only the inclusion of India in this list that had fuelled reports of Google allowing Indian developers to distribute paid apps.
When contacted for comment on the development, a Google spokesperson told NDTV Gadgets, "We have nothing to announce at this point in time." In the absence of any official confirmation from Google, one cannot be sure if the original inclusion of India in the list was an error or if its plans to let Indian developers join the fun ran into last minute regulatory hurdles.
With no support for Indian developers, there are currently only 31 countries from where a developer can apply for a Google Checkout account and publish paid apps in Google Play.
Indian devs will have to stick to free Android apps right now with only advertisement as the sole method of monetisation in Google Play.
App developers can also choose alternative stores like Amazon to sell paid applications but they do not provide as big coverage as Google Play and are only available in select countries. Given the reach of Google Play to over 500 million Android devices, it is hard to ignore.
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