Indigenous OS - Will It Ever Make It?

The government's recent announcement that it is considering developing an operating system, is seen as an interesting move to break the dominance enjoyed by Google's Android and Apple's iOS. Although it's a step in the right direction as India's very own OS will give a better control over content, data and privacy to the government at local level, it's going to be not as easy as one thinks. Developing an operating system has its own set of challenges and the government's statement leaves more questions than answers.

- Ramesh Kumar Raja

There is a duopoly of Google's Android and Apple's iOS across the world, and India is definitely not an exception to this. In this context, the government's recent announcement to come up with a policy that will facilitate an ecosystem for the industry to create an indigenous operating system, is seen as an interesting move to break the dominance enjoyed by these two tech majors. In order to shake the status quo, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently informed the Parliament that the government is considering development of the operating system, as part of its efforts to create a vibrant design and innovation ecosystem in Electronics and Information Technology.

Government's outlook

This development is in addition to the government's earlier statement that it is talking with tech companies to come up with an indigenous OS. “There is no third one. Therefore, in a lot of ways there is tremendous interest in Meity (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) and in the Government of India to even create a new handset operating system. We are talking to people. We are looking at a policy for that,” said Chandrasekhar, in an interview with a news agency.

The government is looking for capabilities within start-up and academic ecosystems for the development of the OS, said Chandrasekhar. If there is some real capability then we will be very much interested in developing that area because that will create an alternative to iOS and Android which then an Indian brand can grow, he stated.