Oliver Haslam on January 25, 2022, 11:13 pm

India Working On Its Own Mobile Operating System To Replace iOS And Android

The Indian government is reportedly looking to get into the world of mobile operating systems with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announcing the move.

The “indigenous” mobile operating system, first reported by The Economic Times, comes as the country works to encourage the technology industry to create something that will be “an alternative to iOS and Android” for use in India.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday that there is “tremendous interest: in creating a new handset operating system. “We are talking to people. We are looking at a policy for that,” Chandrasekhar said.

“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.

It sounds like plans are still at an early stage and it isn’t immediately clear whether anything will come to fruition, but we’ve seen how hard it can be for companies to compete with iOS and Android — could the Indian government help change that? Huawei hasn’t fared too great, although that’s more an international problem.

At home, use of Huawei’s own app store hasn’t proven a problem but it’s the lack of iOS App Store and Google Play Store access that has hampered it internationally.