Home Minister Amit Shah Switches To Homegrown Platform Zoho Mail For Official Communication
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had stated last month that he is opting to shift to the Swadeshi platform as well, for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has updated his official email address, announcing a shift to Zoho Mail. His new address is amitshah.bjp@zohomail.in, which he has asked to be used for all future correspondence through a post on social media platform X.
Notably, the move marks the adoption of an Indian email service platform by a senior government leader.
Amit Shah becomes the latest senior leader from the Narendra Modi government to adopt Zoho-based platforms, underscoring the Centre's growing preference for indigenous digital tools. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had stated last month that he is opting to shift to the Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Shah's move is expected to have a chain effect across ministries and departments, as more government authorities consider switching to Indian-made technology platforms.
The move comes amid a renewed push for "Swadeshi tech," a cause that has received significant attention following Prime Minister Modi's call to promote Made-in-India apps. Among Zoho's suite of products, Arattai, its messaging platform, has been gaining traction recently. Arattai supports end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls but reportedly lacks the same for text chats — a detail highlighted by Zoho's founder, Sridhar Vembu, in his recent updates.
Zoho Mail is part of the Chennai-based company's enterprise suite and is positioned as a privacy-first, ad-free alternative to global giants like Gmail and Outlook. The service offers end-to-end encryption and assures users that their data will not be sold to advertisers.
Zoho's services are powered entirely by its own infrastructure, using in‑house software built over open‑source foundations such as Linux and the Postgres database, highlighted the founder.
With Amit Shah's adoption of Zoho Mail, the spotlight once again turns to India's expanding homegrown tech ecosystem, as the government continues to set the tone for digital self-reliance.
