India Promotes Homegrown Apps Amid Rising Trade Tensions with US

India’s senior ministers are rallying behind homegrown technology platforms in a fresh push for “Made in India” digital products, following Washington’s decision in August to impose a 50 percent tariff on Indian imports.

The campaign signals growing government support for domestic tech firms as alternatives to global giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta, amid escalating trade frictions between New Delhi and Washington.

According to Reuters, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw this week highlighted key government infrastructure projects powered by Zoho, a Chennai-based software company, and MapmyIndia, a local digital mapping service.

“The map is from MapmyIndia, not Google Maps,” Vaishnaw said during a highway project presentation, adding, “It’s looking nice, right? Swadeshi.” He later shared a video testing Zoho’s presentation software, encouraging citizens to adopt locally developed tools.

Zoho, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Sridhar Vembu, has built a global reputation for its affordable, cloud-based productivity software positioned as a competitor to Microsoft Office.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan have joined the movement by publicly endorsing Zoho’s messaging app ‘Arattai’ — meaning “chat” in Tamil — as a homegrown alternative to WhatsApp.

“So proud to be on @Arattai, a #MadeInIndia messaging platform that brings India closer,” Goyal wrote on X this week.

According to data from Sensor Tower, downloads of Arattai surged from fewer than 10,000 in August to over 400,000 in September, with daily active users doubling to 100,000 by September 26.

Despite the renewed enthusiasm, global platforms remain deeply entrenched. Microsoft products dominate Indian government offices, while Google Maps and WhatsApp are used by hundreds of millions daily. India is WhatsApp’s largest market, with more than 500 million users, according to Reuters.

Past attempts to challenge global digital monopolies have met limited success. The microblogging app Koo, once hailed as an Indian alternative to X (formerly Twitter), shut down last year after funding dried up.

The latest government-backed drive, however, appears more coordinated — pairing nationalist sentiment with digital self-reliance goals under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Digital India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiatives.