India Eyeing Self Developed OS to Rival iOS and Android

Parthiv Menon

January 27, 2022

The the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced that the Government is planning to promote the creation of an "indigenous" mobile Operating System to compete with iOS and Android. India is an increasingly important market to Apple, but it continues to face fierce competition from Android devices in the country. Apple has steadily increased the number of its devices manufactured in India, with up to 70 percent of all iPhones sold in the country being made there. Mass production of the iPhone 13 in India is set to start next month and the country's first retail store is also on the way. The homegrown Indian mobile OS is specifically intended to "create an alternative to iOS and Android" in India. iOS and Android drive the development of hardware ecosystems, which is something that the Government hopes the new platform will mirror, giving an Indian brand space to develop. The Government is hence looking for suitable startups and academic institutions that are capable of developing a new OS. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar hinted that start-ups and companies working on an Indian OS may be attractive to domestic and foreign investment when raising capital.

Abridged fromMacRumors