Zoom's list of rivals increases as HCL, PeopleLink etc. to develop video conferencing solution in India 

HCL Technologies, Zoho Corp, and Hyderabad-based PeopleLink are among the ten companies selected by the government in the first round to develop a Made-in-India video conferencing solution in India.

These companies are expected to develop a prototype for the solution that will aim to be at par with the global products such as Zoom. These companies will be given a grant of ₹5 lakh each to build the prototype, a government official said.

Ajay Data, Chief of the Data group said that India doesn't have many software products which can compete globally even though there are many service companies which have become very popular.

"There are many advantages of having an Indian VC product, one is that the solution can be in all Indian languages, and it can be locally hosted. This is important since when video is recorded for legal purposes, it should be stored in India and the encryption key should also be available in India. This is not possible with foreign VC tools." Sarv Webs also from Jaipur, Soulpage IT Solutions, Techgentsia Software Technologies and VaC are also part of the ten company list.

After the third round, the best solution will get a contract to deploy it for use by Government of India and state government entities for a period of four years and will also be given ₹1 crore in the first year and an additional ₹10 lakh per year for three years after the first year for operations and maintenance of the solution for the government.