'10-Year National Mission': Sridhar Vembu Offers 'Plan B' If US Bans India From THESE Tech Platforms
Sridhar Vembu's Zoho has been at the forefront of India's domestic push for these applications, with the company's messaging app - Arattai - gaining popularity.
Amid growing concerns over India's reliance on foreign tech platforms, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has called for a ten-year "National Mission for Tech Resilience" to promote domestic tech platforms.
Vembu shared his thoughts on X while replying to a post made by Harsh Goenka regarding India's dependency on US technology and the potential ramifications, should Donald Trump one day decide to ban India from using US tech platforms such as Google, Facebook and X.
"Imagine if Trump bans India from using U.S. tech platforms — no X, Google, Instagram, Facebook or ChatGPT. Frightening, no!" Goenka wrote on X.
Vembu reacted to the post, adding that India's reliance on US tech lies deeper than just social media. He explained that India is also reliant on US for operating systems, semiconductors and fabs, before going on to call for a National Mission for Tech Resilience.
"I agree. And we have a lot more such tech dependency beyond the app level: OS, chips, fabs, .. it goes deeper and deeper. We need a 10-year "National Mission for Tech Resilience". It can be done," Vembu wrote while reposting Goenka's message.
Sridhar Vembu's Zoho has been at the forefront of India's domestic push for these applications, with the company's messaging app - Arattai - gaining popularity after public endorsements from multiple union ministers, including Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Zoho also offers a series of other Indian alternatives to popular applications such as MS Word, MS PowerPoint and Gmail, among others.
Vembu, for his part, has been vocal about increasing India's tech resilience and is a frequent commentator on daily issues.
The Zoho top boss was recently under fire for his comments on vaccine, drawing ire from the medical community for sharing a controversial study on vaccines.
