BharOS: Union ministers test IIT Madras developed mobile operating system

Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan successfully tested the ‘BharOS’, a Made In India mobile operating system developed by IIT Madras, the Ministry of Education said in a statement. 

Pradhan said that the poor people of the country will be the main beneficiary of a strong, indigenous, dependable & self-reliant digital infrastructure.  

He further said that promoting policy enablers with the whole of the government approach is an applied experiment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. “‘BharOS’ is a successful step towards data privacy,” he added. 

Pradhan further said that successful test of ‘BharOS’ – the Made in India mobile operating system is an important initiative towards fulfilling PM Modi’s vision of a strong, indigenous & self-reliant digital infrastructure in India. 

The BharOS is an Android Open Source Project based operating system which is developed by JandK Operations Private Limited. Unlike Android, it does not have default Google apps or services, which implies that users will not be forced to opt for applications that they are unfamiliar with or do not trust.  

It can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets. 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. 

The indigenous mobile operating system comes with No Default Apps (NDA), which means users will not be forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or that they may not trust.