New Delhi: Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on 22 September that he has transitioned his official work to Zoho’s suite of productivity tools, calling it a step towards strengthening India’s homegrown technology ecosystem.
Sharing the update on X, he described Zoho as “our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.” He encouraged citizens to adopt indigenous products and services in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for self-reliance.
The move reinforces the Centre’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission, which seeks to reduce dependence on foreign software and promote domestic innovation.
Zoho, headquartered in Tamil Nadu, has steadily built a global presence while positioning itself as India’s answer to international productivity software.
Welcoming the minister’s decision, Zoho founder and former CEO Sridhar Vembu posted that the endorsement was “a huge morale boost” for the company’s engineers and pledged to “make our nation proud.”
Vaishnaw’s announcement follows a series of government efforts to promote locally made goods and technology. Only days earlier, Prime Minister Modi urged traders and consumers to “buy Swadeshi and sell Swadeshi,” highlighting reforms such as GST rationalisation that have lowered raw material costs and supported domestic manufacturing.
The Prime Minister also linked the push for indigenous products to the broader vision of “Viksit Bharat 2047,” noting that each purchase of a Made-in-India product directly benefits local artisans, workers and small industries.
