Yes, you read it right. To tackle the monopoly of Big Tech giants in the mobile operating system space, the government is working on a project to build its own operating system, Business Standard reported. This project, tentatively titled IndOS, has been started by the government along with startups and academia. This is an interesting development with several aspects. Google, which controls about 96% of the mobile operating system space in India (with its Android OS) has been at odds with India's Competition Commission of India (CCI) for some time now. The CCI has accused Google of 'anti-competitive' practices which led to the tech giant dominating the smartphone OS market (with Android) and the app store market (with Play Store). It even asked Google to take steps such as avoiding pre-installing apps on phones, allowing side-loading of apps, and allowing uninstalling of pre-installed apps. Why it matters: At the same time, the government is planning to pre-install its own app—Arogya Setu—on smartphones. When (and if) the government comes out with its own desi operating system for smartphones, these questions will come into play. Will the government give preference to its own apps (like Digilocker or Aarogya Setu etc)? Or will it stick to what the CCI believes in—that pre-installing apps on an operating system is 'not a good practice'? An operating system created by the government could also put users' data in the hands of the government if enough privacy safeguards are not provided. The government will have to take responsibility for securely storing the personal and…
