WhatsApp-like app being developed by Indian govt for official communication: Report- Technology News, Firstpost

tech2 News StaffJun 27, 2019 16:39:51 IST

The Indian government is reportedly working on a 'secure' application similar to WhatsApp for internal and official communication.

According to a report by Economic Times, a senior official has revealed the government's plans to develop its own email, messaging and other communication platforms, so they do not have to depend on any "outside player" for the same.

“There are strong discussions that for strategic and security reasons, over a period of time, we should have email, messaging…all sorts of systems, at least for government communication, which doesn’t depend on outside players,” the official told the publication. “We need to make our communication insular.”

The plans reportedly stem from the ongoing US-China trade war, where US companies like Google and Qualcomm have been asked to cut ties with Huawei.

(Also read: Hongmeng OS (Ark OS): Google’s absence could create big problems for Huawei)

Image: Pixabay

The official hinted at how Huawei is being penalised by the US and does not want a similar situation to arise in India.

"Tomorrow, if the US finds us unreliable for some reason, all they need to do is ask their companies to slow down networks in India and everything here will come to a standstill. We are vulnerable and we must take steps to cover that,” said the official.

The government believes that all official communication must exclusively happen on secure and indigenously developed platforms. And all the data shared on these must will locally be stored.

Initially, these plans will be carried out only for official government-to-government communication, and eventually, the plan is to have a government-to-citizen communication tool as well. Who knows, like China, this may also turn into a citizen-to-citizen platform as well, but no word on that yet!

And while we are at it and the government is looking for a "sarkari WhatsApp", somebody should also call up Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and ask him about the Kimbho app. Whatever happened to it?