In recent years, the Indian government has placed a strong emphasis on the development of a locally-developed mobile operating system to reduce dependence on foreign technology. With the emergence of BharOS, it appears that India has successfully met this objective. However, the discontinuation of previous indigenous operating system projects such as IndusOS raises concerns about the sustainability and long-term success of BharOS.
BharOS, developed by JandK Operations Private Limited, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras-incubated firm, is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets. The operating system offers unique features such as Native Over The Air (NOTA) updates, which allow for automatic downloading and installation of updates, as well as providing users with more control over app permissions.
Despite the government's promotion of BharOS as an indigenous operating system, some argue that it cannot truly be considered indigenous as it is simply a fork of AOSP without Google apps. Additionally, Chinese phone makers such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have also developed their own operating systems based on AOSP.
The challenge for BharOS to succeed in the market lies in its scalability. For the operating system to be widely adopted, it needs to be pre-installed on smartphones that citizens buy. However, the Indian smartphone market is currently dominated by Chinese players, raising the question of whether these companies will adopt BharOS. The only way for the operating system to scale is if the government mandates its usage, similar to the mandate for phone makers to make their handsets NavIC compatible.
Despite these challenges, BharOS could potentially find use within government departments due to its emphasis on privacy and security. Only time will tell if BharOS can truly compete with the likes of Android and iOS and establish itself as a sustainable and successful indigenous mobile operating system.
0 Comments