The Union Ministry of Education confirmed that the Zoho Office Suite has been integrated into the National Informatics Centre (NIC) mail system. Over the past year, all 12 lakh email accounts of central government employees, including those of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), have been migrated from the NIC-based system to Zoho’s platform. Zoho is headquartered in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu.
A senior official noted that the suite has also been activated to ensure employees avoid open-source applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, which could compromise file security.
Promoting the Swadeshi Movement
The Ministry highlighted that adopting Zoho’s homegrown tools is part of the broader Swadeshi movement, aimed at fostering self-reliance in technology, securing data, and encouraging India-led innovation. “By embracing Zoho’s indigenous office productivity tools, we take a bold step in empowering India to lead with home-grown innovation, strengthen digital sovereignty, and secure our data for a self-reliant future,” the Ministry said.
Policy and Usage Encouragement
On October 3, the Ministry issued a directive encouraging government employees to actively use Zoho tools, in line with India’s vision of transforming from a service economy into a product nation. Previously, the suite was available but underused; officials found many employees relied on open-source tools.
The official explained, “It was decided to make employees aware of Zoho’s features and display them prominently on the internal mail platform.”
Security and Oversight
The domain names of government emails remain unchanged (nic.in or gov.in), but data storage and processing have shifted from NIC to Zoho, which was awarded the contract in 2023 for seven years. Security audits and reports from NIC, CERT-In, and Software Quality Systems ensure that the platform remains secure.
Former IAS officer K.B.S Sidhu stressed that before large-scale adoption, “end-to-end encryption and independently audited security of data centres on Indian soil must be guaranteed.”
Zoho’s Commitment
Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu emphasized the company’s privacy practices, stating, “Our entire SAS business is based on the trust that we DO NOT access customer data and we do not use it for selling stuff to them. End-to-end encryption is a technical feature and that is coming. Trust is far far more precious and we are earning that trust daily in the global market.”
Digital India and Historical Context
The Digital India Corporation (DIC), a MeitY-not-for-profit, invited bids in February 2023 to select a cloud service provider to manage and migrate government projects, following the November 2022 cyberattack on AIIMS Delhi that disrupted e-hospital services for over a month.
Recently, several Union Ministers, including Amit Shah, began using Zoho email services for personal use, while official government communications continue on the nic.in and gov.in domains.
Towards a Self-Reliant Technology Ecosystem
The adoption of Zoho by central government employees reflects India’s broader push to rely on homegrown technology, strengthen digital sovereignty, and build secure, locally managed digital infrastructure.
