Government to come out with own mobile operating system

Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, the government is planning to come up with a policy that will facilitate an ecosystem for the industry to create an indigenous handset operating system.

He said that mobile phones are dominated by two operating systems – Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. The government is planning to come up with a policy that will facilitate an ecosystem for the industry to create an indigenous operating system as an alternative operating system.

Therefore, in a lot of ways there is tremendous interest in MeitY and in the Government of India to even create a new handset operating system. We are talking to people. We are looking at a policy for that,” Chandrasekhar said.

He said that the government is looking for capabilities within start-up and academic ecosystems for development of an indigenous operating system (OS). The operating system is the main software of any computer and mobile device that weaves in the entire hardware and software system for effective functioning of the OS.

“If there is some real capability then we will be very much interested in developing that area because that will create an alternative to iOS and Android which then an Indian brand can grow,” Chandrasekhar said.

The minister said that most of the policies and policy tools are being re-looked at in the context of reimagining goals and ambitions.

He along with Minister for Communications and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw released the second volume of Vision Document on Electronics Manufacturing prepared by the industry body ICEA whose members include Apple, Lava, Foxconn, Dixon etc.

The document details a road map for achieving USD 300 billion electronics manufacturing in the country by 2026 from the current level of USD 75 billion.

“This report is very precise which talks about where USD 300 billion will come, what industry has to do and what the government needs to do. This is an example of how industry and government should set targets for the country. The manufacturing will be USD 300 billion and exports worth USD 120 billion will happen. This is the government of India’s objective now,” Chandrasekhar said. At present, India’s electronics export is around USD 15 billion.