IIT-Madras-incubated JandK Operations Pvt. Ltd., which created BharOS, India’s first native mobile phone operating system, is in talks with both government agencies & private sector businesses that demand strict privacy and security architecture.
“There is considerable interest from both government and business sector organisations. The IIT Madras head, Prof. V Kamakoti, stated in an interview that “we are moving toward cooperating with them.”
The federal government-funded non-profit Pravartak Technologies Foundation at IIT Madras is where JandK was first incubated.
Dharmendra Pradhan, the minister of education, and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of communications and information technology, successfully tested BharOS on Tuesday by making video and audio calls.
As India works to localise manufacturing, supply chains, and applications in addition to building a solid infrastructure for important industries like electronics and semiconductors, the indigenous OS is another step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. In addition to providing production-related incentives for hardware built in India, the government is putting more and more emphasis on data security and privacy.
BharOS effectively offers a substitute for Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. In reality, the Competition Commission of India fined Google ₹1,337 crore for allegedly abusing Android’s dominant market share of 95% and ordered it to lift all restrictions on hardware manufacturers’ ability to load apps from sources other than the Google Playstore. To modify how it markets the app store, the search giant is collaborating with the CCI.
“As a nation, we seek an Indian mobile operating system that is safe. This simply means that it only runs authorised software. The system shouldn’t run the authorised programme, no matter how little the alteration may be. We can control viruses and other acts that compromise security and privacy thanks to such high assurances. It has been a long time in the making, according to IIT-Madras and IIT-Madras-incubated companies, according to Kamakoti. The next step will be to allow businesses the ability to operate their own app stores and give them control over what apps may be downloaded for mobile devices. Even though it would currently only be accessible to a small or captive audience of users, it will be included in the OS’s commercial launch.
“BharOS can be installed on devices provided to employees by interested businesses. The organisations will be given access to a private app store, where they will be able to manage all apps that are posted. On phones, only the apps from that store will function; other apps will not; “explained he.
If the seller provides us with the development instructions and some functionalities, BharOS can be installed on any commercial phone. This involves porting an entire secure stack on a phone, not just an operating system “Added he.
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