BharOS 

Discussion: Bhar-OS

The Indian government’s Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology tested BharOS.

About BharOS

• It is an indigenous mobile operating system, like Android or iOS.
• It is developed by JandK Operations Private Limited, a non-profit organization incubated at IIT Madras.
  • It is funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
• It can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets.
• BharOS is based on Android Open-Source Project (AOSP). It makes it similar to Google Android. However, it does not come preloaded with Google services.
• It comes with No Default Apps (NDA). This means that users are not forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or that they may not trust.
• It comes with security protocols such as root of trust and chain of trust, which means that the operating system is designed to stop working if any change is made to its software.
• It will provide access to apps from organisation-specific Private App Store Services (PASS).
  • A PASS provides access to a curated list of apps that have been thoroughly vetted and have met certain security and privacy standards.
• It also supports Native Over The Air (NOTA) updates, which would ensure that the device is always running the latest version of the OS (ie automatically installed), including security patches and bug fixes.

Significance of BharOS

• It aims to reduce the dependence on foreign OS in smartphones and promote the use of locally developed technology.
• It is a huge leap forward to create an indigenous ecosystem and a self-reliant future.
• It aspires to put India on par with those few countries that currently possess such capabilities.