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The unheralded migration of over 12 lakh Central government email accounts, including those of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and other union ministers from the government’s own National Informatics Centre (NIC) system to a platform run by the private, Chennai-headquartered company Zoho, is not a victory for the ‘Swadeshi movement’ and ‘digital sovereignty’ as the government claims. A closer look at this transfer of critical national digital infrastructure raises profound questions regardless of the company’s indigenous roots.

A critical examination of this action reveals that it is not a simple tech upgrade but rather a fundamental policy decision that surrenders a core sovereign function to a commercial entity. It implicitly declares the government’s own premier technology institution as incapable. From a tech policy research perspective, it is not an achievement of  sovereignty, but looks like a sophisticated form of surrender.

Since it’s establishment in 1976, ​the NIC has been the technological spine of the Indian government, responsible for maintaining the national portal of India, and everything from foundational infrastructure to the execution of large-scale e-governance projects. It has been the default custodian of India’s digital assets.

Nevertheless, the email system of NIC was reportedly not competent with the modern office suits like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or the Zoho Office Suit. The NIC system was falling short on features, usability, and scalability. The logical, self-reliant path, at the golden jubilee year (2026) of NIC, would have been massive and targeted investment in modernising its core email platform and developing an in-house government office suite instead of signing a seven-year contract with a private player. This isn’t just a contract; it is a message that the NIC, despite decades of service and its security mandate, was deemed incapable of evolving its own mail service to meet contemporary needs. It’s a vote of no confidence that will have lasting repercussions on the morale and strategic importance of the NIC.

Imagine a........

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