Hello, BharOS, Indias very own indigenous operating system

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has developed an indigenous mobile operating system for mobile phone users in India, known as BharOS. The OS is said to be a significant contribution towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and is designed to provide a secure environment for users.

Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, 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 revolutionise the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices.”

“IIT Madras looks forward to working closely with many more private industry, Government agencies, Strategic agencies and Telecom Service Providers to increase the usage and adoption of BharOS in our Country,” he further added.

What is BharOS?

BharOS has been developed by JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops), a non-profit organization established by the IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation. The foundation is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS).

BharOS features

BharOS provides access to trusted apps through organization-specific Private App Store Services (PASS). These PASSs provide access to a curated list of apps that have been thoroughly screened and have met certain security and privacy standards set by organizations. This means that users can be confident that the apps they are installing are safe to use and have been checked for potential security vulnerabilities or privacy concerns. 

Another notable feature of BharOS is that it comes with No Default Apps (NDA), giving users the choice to not use apps they don’t trust and also allowing them to have more control over the permissions apps have on their device, as they can choose to only allow apps they trust to access certain features or data on their device. 

Currently, BharOS services are being provided to organizations that have stringent privacy and security requirements and whose users handle sensitive information and require access to private cloud services through private 5G networks.