What is BharOS?

Mostly the smartphone market is dominated by Apple and Google (Companies like : Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi uses Google’s Android for their operating systems.)

These smartphones comes pre-loaded with a plethora of applications which a user may or may not use. These applications take a considerable amount of space and sometimes may also keep running in the background without the consent of the user. In some cases these apps try to steal users data, though Google keeps implementing various policies on the developers to make the whole process transparent.

Also, Developers and users have to comply with the policies that are set by these tech giants which may or may not be fruitful for both the parties.

To fix the above described India has been planning to develop its own operating system to take on widely used Android and iOS.

BharOS is a mobile operating system, which the developers explain is focused on “providing users more freedom, control, and flexibility to choose and use only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionize the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices.” This motive seems to have seen fruition as IIT Madras has come up with the privacy-focused BharOS as part of PM Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

Some key points :

1. Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, during a press conference, said, “BharOS Service is a Mobile Operating System built on a foundation of trust, with a focus on providing users more freedom, control, and flexibility to choose and use only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionize the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices.“

2. BharOS will provide access to apps only via organization-specific Private App Store Services (PASS). The apps will be thoroughly checked for security standards when they are a part of PASS so that users know they are downloading the safe ones. JandKops’ Director, Karthik Ayyar, said that “With NDA, PASS, and NOTA, BharOS ensures that Indian mobile phones are trustworthy.“

3. Users of BharOS will receive NOTA (Native Over The Air) patches just like Android and iOS.

4. BharOS is AOSP (Android Open Source Project) based Operating System developed by JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops) , which is a Section 8 (not-for-profit) Company established by IIT Madras.

5. BharOS will not support the apps that rely on Google Play Services, as a result various Google Apps will not be supported.

6. It will come with a private app store which allows the user to install and sideload the apps of their choice.

7. Details about notification settings, battery monitoring, home screen widgets, and privacy options are not yet revealed.

8. The current version of BharOS has third party apps like DuckDuckGo and Signal.

9. Currently BharOS is provided to firms that have ‘stringent privacy and security requirements’ and their is no word on it’s public release.

A Google’s spokeperson said that Google Pixel Smartphones are compatible with BharOS.

Why is their a need of INDIAN OS?

1. Computer OS market is dominated by Microsoft Windows.

2. Smartphones operates by the standards set by Google and Apple.

3. Reliance Jio has developed KaiOS for its feature phones which is not very popular.

4. Jio OS a custom Android-based developed for JioBook is a complete failure.

5. This is an initiative by the Government of India to introduce it’s homegrown Operating System. However only time will tell how good this product becomes.

Thanks for reading!!