Three cabinet colleagues of PM Narendra Modi are promoting the use of “Made in India” apps amid growing trade tension on American companies in India. This is considered to be the strongest sign of adopting indigenous products at the time of India-US trade dispute.
Mapmyindia indigenous app
The US imposed 50% tariff on Indian imports in August, after which PM Modi called for the use of indigenous products. Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav recently made a media presentation ZOHO (indigenous option of Microsoft PowerPoint) and MapmyIndia (option of Google Maps). He said, the map is from MapmyIndia, not Google Maps. Is indigenous.
Other indigenous apps
Arattai, a message app, which was promoted by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Last month, the app received more than 400,000 downloads, while in August the number was less than 10,000. The daily active users crossed 100,000 on 26 September.
Challenge and limits
Lack of market and financial resources is a big challenge for Indian companies compared to global brands.
In 2021, India promoted the KOO platform, but it stopped due to the financial crisis.
Experts say that only government support is not enough; Companies also need financial strength, unique features and privacy security.
Efforts are being made to make indigenous digital products more popular with the initiative of the government and ministers, so that dependence on foreign apps can be reduced and Indian options are promoted.