By Erick In a BOSS move, Union IT Minster Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that he’s using Zoho’s suite of office applications in place of Microsoft’s Office suite. Why is this a boss move? Because without saying it, it’s a big F-U to one of the biggest and most entrenched American tech companies, showing that we have more than capable locally made alternatives. Whether this was a sponsored post or not (this blog post is certainly not sponsored – by Zoho or the Government) this comes with a very clear message:
And it’s not like Zoho was a company setup overnight when US tariffs were announced. Zoho is a large software company founded in 1996. I have been following Zoho for a while and will guarantee you that one floor of the Zoho office has more ethics and integrity than the C-suite of Microsoft put together. As an Indian, I am incredibly proud of this.
Other bits of news related to Zoho are that its office suite is officially being used by the Indian Railways, and other Government services to follow suit.
Zoho also launched its own messaging platform called Arattai (which means chat in Tamil) which is set to rival the likes of WhatsApp.
I’ve been smiling all week thanks to Zoho and the Indian Government! Can’t wait for the Trump administration’s sorry reaction to this swadeshi push from India. I have said it before – Tech India does not need Tech USA, but it’s not the same when you inverse it.
By the way, there are reports that the Indian Government told the Trump administration that if we stop buying Russian oil – which Trump is saying is the cause of his ‘punitive measures’ on India – then we’ll have to buy oil from Iran or Venezuela. Bother are under US ‘sanctions’. See? This is a mess that the US only made. Thu.
Anyway, here’s what else happened this week in Tech India:
- There are more details on the upcoming e-Aadhaar app. Users will be able to update date of birth, address and phone number instantly with the upcoming all-in-one app. This means that we won’t have to wait in queues to have our aadhaar updated, but everything can be done through the app. This is raising security concerns in my head, but will wait and watch.
- RBI has mandated 2-factor authentication (2FA) for all digital payments. This is great from a security point of view. As long as I can use Face ID to make payments, and not have to receive 10 million OTPs a day.
- RBI has instructed Bengaluru based fintech startup Simpl to halt all payment operations, as an investigation and next steps are underway. RBI says that Simpl violated payment norms.
- Sources state that Flipkart obtained the Singapore Government’s approval to shift its base to India. Yes, Flipkart is headquartered in Singapore. And somehow owned by Walmart.
- PhonePe files confidential IPO papers with SEBI. Because why not? Btw PhonePe obtained final approval from RBI to act as an online payment aggregator, which means it can be a direct competitor to PayPal.
- Elon Musk’s X challenge to Government content blocking orders got rejected by the Karnataka High Court.
- Swiggy is selling its 12% stake in Rapido for close to ₹2,500/-. Remember last week that Swiggy launched a new app called Toing that is set to compete with Rapido’s Ownly.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated BSNL’s 4G stack, and commissioned more than 97,000 4G towers. This makes India one of the few countries that manufacture its own telecom equipment.
- Nothing’s CMF is to operate as an independent subsidiary based in India, and announces a JV with Optiemus. This was announced by Nothing’s founder and CEO Carl Pei himself.
- Nutanix and Lenovo have deepened their partnership in India to deliver AI-ready, enterprise cloud infrastructure tailored to local needs.
If any of you installed Arattai, message me. Well, DM me on Threads first, and then let’s connect. ✌🏽