BharOS: Many people around the world will not want such a system to succeed, says Union telecommunications minister

Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday tested ‘BharOS’, an indigenous operating system developed by Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT). “Congratulations to all who have been involved in developing the system. For the very first time when our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji spoke about Digital India 8 years ago, some of our friends laughed at him, but today ‘today, the country’s technocrats, innovators, industries and policy makers and academic institutions have accepted his vision after eight years,’ he said.

Union Telecommunications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was also present at the event.

“There will be difficulties in this journey and there are many people in the world who will bring difficulties and will not want such a system to succeed,” Vaishnav said.

BharOS – a new mobile operating system focused on privacy and security. A mobile operating system is software that forms the central interface of a smartphone such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

BharOS is an Indian government-funded project to develop a free and open-source operating system (OS) for use in government and public systems. The project aims to reduce reliance on foreign operating systems in smartphones and promote the use of locally developed technologies. It’s a huge step towards creating a native ecosystem and a self-sustaining future.

BharOS services are currently provided to organizations that have strict privacy and security requirements and whose users manage sensitive information that requires confidential communications on restricted applications on mobiles. These users need access to private cloud services through private 5G networks.

BharOS was developed by JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops), which was incubated by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a Section 8 (non-profit) company established by IIT Madras. The Foundation is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS). He aspires to put India on a par with the few countries that currently possess such capabilities.

Addressing a press conference on January 19 to announce this Indian mobile operating system, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, said, “BharOS service is a mobile operating system built on a foundation of trust, with a focus on providing users with more freedom, control and flexibility to choose and use only the applications that meet their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionize the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices.

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

BharOS comes with no default application (NDA). This means that users are not forced to use applications they may not know or trust. Additionally, this approach allows users to have more control over the permissions apps have on their device, as they can choose to only allow apps they trust to access certain features or data on their device.

According to Karthik Ayyar, Director of JandK Operations Pvt Ltd., the start-up that developed this mobile operating system, said: “In addition, BharOS offers “Native Over The Air” (NOTA) updates that can help keep devices secure.NOTA updates are automatically downloaded and installed on the device, without the user needing to manually initiate the process.This ensures that the device is always running the latest version of the operating system. operation, including the latest security patches and bug fixes. With NDA, PASS, and NOTA, BharOS ensures that Indian mobile phones are trustworthy.”

BharOS provides access to trusted applications from organization-specific Private Application Store Services (PASS). A PASS provides access to a curated list of apps that have been thoroughly vetted and have passed certain organizations’ security and privacy standards. This means that users can be confident that the apps they install are safe to use and have been checked for any potential security vulnerabilities or privacy issues.