Swadeshi Tech Push: India Shifts 12 Lakh Government Emails To Zoho Platform

In a major step toward bolstering indigenous technology, the Central government has reportedly fully migrated the email accounts of over 12 lakh employees—including those in the Prime Minister’s Office—to Zoho Corporation's cloud platform, completing the transition over the past year.

An official told The Hindu that government employees have migrated from a National Informatics Centre-based system to a platform developed by Zoho. The official also claims that Zoho’s suite has been activated to ensure that government employees do not use open source applications to create presentations, word files, and spreadsheets.

The shift, part of a seven-year contract awarded to the Chennai-based Zoho in 2023, moves data storage and processing from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to Zoho while retaining familiar .nic.in and .gov.in domains for official use. This comes amid efforts to curb reliance on open-source tools that posed security risks, following a 2022 cyberattack on AIIMS Delhi that accelerated the search for a new provider and the new push for Swadeshi tech.

Security and Self-Reliance at the Core

The migration addresses vulnerabilities from employees using unsecured open-source applications for documents and spreadsheets, promoting Zoho's suite as a secure, home-grown alternative. "By embracing Zoho’s indigenous office productivity tools, we take a bold step in the Swadeshi movement, empowering India to lead with home-grown innovation, strengthen digital sovereignty, and secure our data for a self-reliant future," the Union Ministry of Education stated in a recent order.

Security measures include regular audits by Software Quality Systems and endorsements from NIC and CERT-In, ensuring robust data protection. Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu emphasised trust as foundational. "Our entire SaaS business is based on the trust that we DO NOT access customer data and we do not use it for selling stuff to them. End-to-end encryption is a technical feature and that is coming."

High-Profile Endorsements and Future Rollout

Several Union Ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, have publicly adopted Zoho for personal emails, though official correspondence remains on government domains. The Education Ministry's October 3 directive mandates promotion of Zoho's tools across departments, aligning with India's vision to evolve into a "product nation."

Experts like former IAS officer K.B.S. Sidhu welcomed the move but urged caution: "There can be no in-principle objection to the government championing an indigenous suite from Zoho. However, end-to-end encryption and probably robust, independently audited security of data centres located on Indian soil must be a condition precedent."

As Zoho's platform—including its Arattai messaging app—gains traction, the endorsement could spur private-sector adoption, further cementing India's tech sovereignty amid rising cyber threats.