'Have switched to Zoho Mail': Why Indian ministers are joining this email platform

Zoho Mail, India's poster child for digital sovereignty, has come to the fore for its role in the government's "Har Ghar Swadeshi" movement, with a huge task ahead of it: taking on email giants that have ruled the roost for decades.

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Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday became the latest high-profile figure to officially make the switch to Zoho Mail.

This comes after Union ministers Amit Shah and Ashwini Vaishnaw—as well as Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami—got onboard the homegrown email platform with an Indian domain extension, declaring the change in posts on X. 

This coordinated push towards the email application—designed by Tamil Nadu-based Zoho Corporation—by high-profile figures signals a possible sea change from traditional email platforms, such as Google's Gmail or Microsoft's Outlook.

This self-reliance in the digital infrastructure, also attempted by Zoho's Arattai—India's alternative to Meta's WhatsApp—fits neatly into the government's 'Har Ghar Swadeshi' campaign encouraging the growth of indigenous products—its response to pressure from the Donald Trump administration's tariffs on India.

More specifically, it is a step towards reducing software dependency on the US.

The move would mean a shift from the ministers' official communications being stored on foreign servers governed by US law to Zoho's servers in India, which are governed by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023).

"I dedicate this moment to our hard working engineers who have toiled hard in Zoho for over 20 years," Zoho's co-founder Sridhar Vembu wrote in an X post, about the shift.

With wider governmental coverage in the cards, a question arises: Can Zoho bridge the gap between itself and its American counterparts, in terms of factors like R&D, data privacy, and investment in a tech ecosystem?

"Meta, Apple, Google, or most other US-based companies are miles ahead in terms of privacy ... You can only dream of this level of independence in India," a Redditor opined.

"Honestly I feel like a tech product should be looked like a tech product without the bias of nationalism," another Redditor wrote.

"Agree. We should support Zoho and India made companies and products," a third Redditor said.