Ministry shuns US firms, switches to homegrown Zoho

The Ministry of Education has directed all its officials to create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations exclusively on Zoho’s platforms — Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet and Zoho Show — instead of Microsoft Office or Google Workspace.

The order, issued on October 3 by Under Secretary Nishant Upadhyaya, is integrating Zoho with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) mail system to ensure seamless access and secure data storage.

“By embracing Zoho’s indigenous office productivity tools, we take a bold step in the Swadeshi movement — empowering India to lead with homegrown innovation, strengthen digital sovereignty, and secure our data for a self-reliant future,” the circular stated.

Notably, PM had in his I-Day speech urged innovators to create indigenous social media platforms. Through its circular, officials have been advised to familiarize themselves with the new platform, with dedicated support available through NIC’s CMIS division.

Leading the transition, Union IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has already switched to Zoho, using Zoho Show for his most recent Union Cabinet presentation, replacing Microsoft PowerPoint.

Founded by Sridhar Vembu and developed by Chennai-based Zoho Corporation, the Office Suite serves more than 130 million users globally. Its cloud-based system, Zoho WorkDrive, ensures secure collaboration and data storage—now synchronised with the government’s NIC ecosystem to avoid multiple logins.

The directive, circulated to senior officials including personal secretaries to the Education Minister and Ministers of State, is expected to be replicated across other ministries in the coming months.

Zoho Office Suite is a cloud-based productivity platform offering tools for document creation, spreadsheets, and presentations. Integrated through Zoho WorkDrive, it enables secure storage, real-time collaboration, and streamlined workflows.