India’s own BharOS tested: Here are its features

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken about the need for an Atmanirbhar Bharat. The BharOS is another step in that direction

New Delhi, Jan 24: Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnav along with Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday tested the BharOS, an indigenous operating system developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

BharOS, a new mobile operating system focuses on privacy and security. This is an Indian government funded project to develop free and open source operating system for use in government and public systems. The project aims at reducing the dependance on foreign OS in smartphones and promote the use of locally developed technology and is a huge leap to create an indigenous ecosystem and Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The BharOS service is being provided to organisations that have stringent privacy and security requirements and those whose users handle sensitive information that requires confidential communications on restricted apps on mobiles.

The BharOS was developed by JandK Operations Private Limited which has been incubated by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a not for profit company established by the IIT Madras. The foundation is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Congratulations to everyone in developing the system. For the very first time when our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji talked about digital India eight years ago, some of our friends mocked him, but today, technocrats, innovators, industries and policymakers, and academic institutions of the country have accepted his vision after eight years, read a tweet.

Tested Indian ‘Operating System’ - BharOS developed at @iitmadras with @dpradhanbjp Ji; A leap forward in PM @narendramodi Ji’s #AatmanirbharBharat journey. pic.twitter.com/eOt3un5okm

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) January 24, 2023

Vaishnav said that there will be difficulties in this journey and there are many people around the world who will bring difficulties and will not want any such system to be successful.

Prof V Kamakoti, Director, of IIT Madras said at a press conference on January 19 that BharOS Service is a Mobile Operating System built on a foundation of trust with a focus on providing users more freedom, control and flexibility to choose and use, only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionise the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices, he also said.

IIT Madras looks forward to working closely with many more private industries, government agencies, strategic agencies and telecom service providers to increase the usage and adoption of BharOS in our country, he also added.

How BharOS works:

The BharOS comes with no default apps. This would mean that the users are not forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or they may not trust. This approach allows user sot have more control over the permissions that the apps have on their devices as they can choose to only allow apps that they trust to access certain features or data on their device.

Karthik Ayyar, director of JandK Operations Pvt Ltd, BharOS offers native over the air updates which can help keep the devices secure. These updates are automatically downloaded and installed on their device, without the need for the user to manually initiate the process. This would ensure that the device is always running the latest operating system version which includes the latest security patches and bug fixes.

The BharOS provides access to trusted apps from he organisation specific Private App Store Services (PASS). A PASS provides access to a curated list of apps that have been thoroughly vetted and have met certain security and privacy standards of organisations. The users can be confident that the apps that they are installing are safe to use and have been checked for potential security concerns.