India Tests Domestic Operating System to Replace Android

India Tests Domestic Operating System to Replace Android
Photo: freepik.com 25.01.2023 578

India's government on Tuesday tested locally developed mobile operating system BharOS, a move seen as challenging the dominance of Google's Android.

The government endorsement of BharOS comes after Google lost its fight in India's Supreme Court to block an antitrust order that will force the company to change how it markets its Android operating system.

BharOS is an Indian government-funded project to develop a free and open-source operating system (OS) for use in government and public systems. The project aims to reduce the dependence on foreign OS in smartphones and promote the use of locally developed technology. 

BharOS focuses on privacy and security and comes with No Default Apps (NDA). This means that users are not forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or that they may not trust. Additionally, this approach allows users to have more control over the permissions that apps have on their device, as they can choose to only allow apps that they trust to access certain features or data on their device.

“This innovative system promises to revolutionise the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices,"

said Prof V Kamakoti, Director, of IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, which was involved in developing BharOS.

BharOS Services are currently being provided to organisations that have stringent privacy and security requirements and whose users handle sensitive information that requires confidential communications on restricted apps on mobiles. Such users require access to private cloud services through private 5G networks.

Sources: NDTV, Reuters

digital markets  India 

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