12 lakh e-mail addresses of Central government employees over the past one year, including those of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), have migrated from a National Informatics Centre-based system to a platform developed by Zoho. Zoho’s suite has also reportedly been activated to ensure that government employees do not use open source applications to create word files, spreadsheets and presentations.
Though the suite was available earlier, not many government employees were using it.
The transition is part of a broader initiative to strengthen India's digital self-reliance. The Union Ministry of Education, in an order dated October 3, instructed officials to adopt the Zoho suite, aligning with the government's goal of promoting indigenous technology and building a secure, homegrown digital ecosystem.
According to Government officials, concerns about data privacy and cyber safety were reviewed in consultation with NIC and CERT-In. Regular security audits by Software Quality Systems (SQS) will continue to ensure data integrity.
"All necessary measures have been taken to safeguard sensitive government data," a senior official assured.
Established in 1976 under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, NIC had managed government email infrastructure for decades. Under a seven-year contract awarded in 2023, Zoho has now assumed responsibility, though official email domains will continue to use nic.in and gov.in addresses.
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu, addressing privacy concerns about the company's messaging app Arattai on October 10, reiterated that Zoho's business model "relies on trust," asserting that user data is not exploited for marketing and that end-to-end encryption is being implemented across services.
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