The government of India understands that there is a large void in the choices of operating systems for handsets across the globe. It now plans to have a presence in the field and facilitate the academic and start-up ecosystem of the country with the means for the same.
- GoI and MeitY are interested in creating India's own operating system for phones.
- A policy might be framed for the same soon.
- India also plans to increase its electronics manufacturing to $300 billion over the next five years.
Government of India is planning to have an operating system for handsets that is completely made in India. The indigenous operating system will serve as an alternative to Google's Android and Apple's iOS, the two dominant forces in otherwise largely unexplored space. The government may also turn to the academic and start-up ecosystem of India for the same.
The interest has been made public by Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a recent interview. Chandrasekhar said that the government is trying to frame a policy that will facilitate an ecosystem for the industry to come up with such an operating system. He mentioned “tremendous interest in MeitY and in the Government of India” to come up with the solution.
Noting the dominance of Android and iOS and their subsequent control on hardware, the minister mentioned “there is no third one” and if “some real capability” is found within the country's ecosystem, the government “will be very much interested in developing that area.” “We are talking to people. We are looking at a policy for that,” Chandrasekhar said.
While the government's ambition is well reasoned, efforts for a new operating system have been aplenty in the past. In fact, we have not only seen new projects being sidelined by the two behemoths every time, we have seen established operating systems like BlackBerry OS and Symbian reach the end of the line. Creating a new OS and making it work, will thus, require an elaborate plan that extends to the hardware as well. Simply because major handset makers will have to adopt it, for it to be a success.
The goal for a new operating system made completely in India branches out from the Prime Minister's primary goal for the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY). As per Chandrasekhar. the Prime Minister wants to produce domestic champions in each of the leading product categories.
On the hardware side, the ministry wants to bring electronics manufacturing in India to a value of $300 billion (about Rs 22.5 lakh crore) by 2026. The goal was mentioned in the second volume of Vision Document, prepared by the industry body ICEA and released recently. At present, India's electronics manufacturing stands at $75 billion (about Rs 5 lakh crore).
The document also details the roadmap to improve exports of electronics from the country. India currently exports around $15 billion, or Rs 1 lakh crore worth of electronics to other countries. The government and ICEA now target to raise this by nine times, to $120 billion (about Rs 9 lakh crore) by 2026. “This is the government of India's objective now,” Chandrasekhar said.
