As India’s technology ecosystem continues to attract global attention, the government wants to ensure that Indian products are not only homegrown but also globally competitive, S Krishnan, secretary of the ministry of electronics and IT, told Moneycontrol on October 10.
Krishnan, during a podcast with Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the Indian Mobile Congress, said that the government's focus is on nurturing Indian alternatives that can match the best-in-class products offered by global technology majors.
“We will support everything which is Indian, which is of that quality and that kind of competitiveness. At no stage should we expect anybody in the country to settle for anything that is not the best-in-class. You can’t say this is an Indian product, but it won’t be as good as something globally available, yet please settle for it because it’s Indian. That will not be India’s case ever," Krishnan said.
The secretary's comments come at a time when ministers across the government have been pushing for the adoption of Zoho's digital office suite including email services for government work, including Union home minister Amit Shah and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
“A little over a year ago, the entire NIC’s (National Informatics Centre) email system, which was previously run on other applications, shifted to a Zoho email basis after a process of price discovery and tendering. It is functioning effectively, and we’ve been quite happy with the way it’s been working,” he said.
While MeitY has been seen as backing Zoho’s expansion across ministries, Krishnan clarified that the government’s broader push is for all Indian tech products, not any one company.
“It’s not fair to single out a single company and say we are pushing this. Our wider push will be for Indian products. There are a number of other Indian companies that are also gaining traction,” he said.
Krishnan underlined that building Indian technology alternatives is about expanding choice, not imposing preference.
The MeitY secretary’s comments come at a time when India is seeing increased investment interest from global AI and semiconductor firms — from Anthropic setting up an India office to Graphcore committing £1 billion in investments over the next decade.
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