In a significant move towards digital independence, a number of state governments are now going to shift their official email infrastructure to Zoho Mail, on the heels of the recent switch by the central government from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) platform.
As per officials, the development is in line with a larger initiative aimed at driving indigenous technology solutions and improving cybersecurity across government networks.
The central government recently completed switching email services for close to 12 lakh staff from NIC to Chennai-based Zoho.
The move comes amid the need to battle increasing cyberattacks. Officials said the switch is believed to enhance data security and resilience.
Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the government had decided to implement Zoho almost three years ago, and the process of rollout started incrementally in ministries.
"Prior to its rollout across the government, we initiated it in the Ministry of Electronics two and a half years ago. Then it was rolled out to Railways, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, and later to all the central government employees," the minister said.
He said that employees utilise Zoho's entire suite of productivity tools now, including substitutes for Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other internal communication tools.
"Global and Indian organisations were assessed on several parameters. First, Google received 8.9, Microsoft 8.8, and Zoho 8.6. We told Indian companies to match up, and within six months, Zoho upgraded its security features. Post tendering, Zoho's bid was the best, and the company was chosen," Vaishnaw said.
The Gujarat government has already migrated to Zoho Mail, and other states are likely to follow soon.
While the email domains of the government (nic.in and gov.in) will not be modified, the data processing and hosting have been shifted to Zoho's cloud platform. The organisation was given a seven-year contract back in 2023 following competitive bidding.
Founded in 1976 as a wing of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), NIC has always been the government's go-to technology wing, providing digital infrastructure and services to Central and State governments.
On the security front, the ministry was clear that Zoho's systems were thoroughly tested by several agencies, including NIC, CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team-India), and Software Quality Systems (SQS), which keep auditing the platform on a regular basis.
The move by the government to shift its massive email infrastructure to an Indian firm is a milestone towards digital sovereignty. Its take-up of Zoho's made-in-India suite, officials added, is in sync with India's aspiration to be a "product nation" that is led by indigenous innovation.
