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Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has said that India should make its 10-year National Mission on Tech Resilience instead of relying on American technology. Harsh Goenka and tech experts have also warned that if America blocks access to digital platforms, India’s $200 billion digital economy could face a huge blow. Therefore, now is the time for the country to increase trust in local apps and software.
New Delhi. Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has once again started a debate on India’s digital sovereignty and local technology development. Vembu has said that India will have to come out of technological dependence on America and Western countries and for this a 10-year National Mission on Tech Resilience should be started. His statement has come at a time when his company’s native chat app ‘Arattai’ is becoming increasingly popular among Indian users.
While posting on X, Vembu said that if India remains so dependent on American tech companies, then it is a big challenge for its digital security. He reacted to the post of industrialist Harsh Goenka, in which Goenka had raised the question that if one day platforms like Google, Instagram, Facebook or ChatGPT are closed, then what will India do. Goenka had written, “Imagine, if all these platforms are shut down in one fell swoop, what plan B do we have?”
‘India needs local solutions like China’
On this question of Harsh Goenka, a tech analyst warned that if America cuts off India’s digital access, it could have disastrous economic consequences. According to NASSCOM estimates, this will have a major impact on India’s $200 billion digital economy, more than 50 crore users will be affected and 60% of the ad revenue may be lost. According to the analyst, India should immediately promote local options, such as Zoho and Nextcloud for cloud services, Aratai for messaging and open-source AI models like Bhashini. He said, “If we have created UPI in five years, then we can also achieve digital sovereignty in 18 months.”
There are Indian apps, but users do not trust them
Although India already has many local apps, users are still stuck on foreign platforms. For example, Mappls app of MapMyIndia is more accurate and useful for Indian roads, yet most people use Google Maps. Similarly, chat apps like Arattai have gradually started providing features like WhatsApp, but it has still not been adopted on a large scale.
