Union Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has recommended a homegrown online application for productivity and online spreadsheet sharing. Sharing a video on his social media account, he praised Zoho—an Indian office suite platform—for enabling access to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, in a bid to promote the use of India-made products and services, similar to Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Vaishnaw wrote: "I am moving to Zoho — our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. 🇮🇳 I urge all to join PM Shri @narendramodi Ji’s call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products & services.”
Push for Technological Self-Reliance
In the backdrop of the Trump administration’s increased tariffs on Indian products and the recent hike in H-1B visa fees, the Narendra Modi government has been prioritising technological self-reliance, with a strong focus on developing and using Indian-made software, applications, and hardware.
What is Zoho?
The Chennai-based technology company, Zoho Corporation, offers cloud-based tools for businesses, including email, accounting, human resource management, administration, CRM, and more. Its online productivity suite—Zoho Workplace and Zoho Office Suite—includes applications for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Zoho Corporation was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu. The India-made platform, run from Tamil Nadu, has grown to serve over 100 million users across 150+ countries, with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 firms.
Among its popular productivity apps are Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Notebook, Zoho WorkDrive, Zoho Mail, Zoho Meeting, and Zoho Calendar.
Is Sharing Personal Data with Zoho Safe?
Zoho ensures user data privacy and does not share information with advertising partners, unlike many other platforms, as its revenue model does not rely on advertisements. The company hosts its data in multiple geographies to meet regulatory requirements. Moreover, Zoho’s plans are generally more affordable than those offered by Microsoft and Google.