Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has reignited the debate around digital sovereignty and the need for localised digital solutions. Post the success of Arratai, the home-grown desi rival to Arratai, Sridhar Vembu has emphasized how vulnerable India’s dependence on US technologies and Systems is.
What did Sridhar Vembu say?
In a post on ‘X’, Sridhar Vembu has posted that there is an urgent need for developing a 10-year National Mission on Tech Resilience. The Zoho founder has made these claims in response to a post by Harsh Goenka, the Industrialist, who also echoed the same viewpoint that in a situation of the US blocking access to its software. India needs to have localised solutions and software ready not only to act as a substitute but to counter the dependence, like China does.
I agree. And we have a lot more such tech dependency beyond the app level: OS, chips, fabs, .. it goes deeper and deeper.
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) November 6, 2025
We need a 10 year “National Mission for Tech Resilience”. It can be done. https://t.co/4a2ub5sMK5
What does Harsh Goenka say?
Harsh Goenka’s original post asked Indians to imagine a scenario where platforms like Google, Instagram, X, Facebook, and ChatGPT were cut off. “Frightening, no! Just think about the consequences seriously and what could be Plan B for us,” he wrote.
In response, a tech analyst with over 15 years in U.S.-India digital trade flagged the potential for “catastrophic economic fallout.” According to NASSCOM estimates for 2025, a sudden cutoff could devastate India’s $200 billion digital economy, disrupt more than 500 million users, and wipe out up to 60% of ad revenue.
The analyst suggested accelerating a Plan B that includes Indian-made alternatives: Zoho and Nextcloud for cloud services, Arattai for messaging, and open-source AI models like Bhashini. “We’ve built UPI in five years; sovereignty in 18 months is feasible,” they noted.
Homegrown desi digital apps?
Although there are several alternatives already developed but Indians are not willing to switch over. For instance Mappls Map My MapMyIndia is a significantly better application for navigating Indian roads. Whereas Google Maps often provides incomplete navigation, which is not suited to and localised for Indian conditions.
Moreover, Arratai, the home-grown desi rival to WhatsApp, is also slowly and gradually offering the same level of features as its rivals do. However, all is not that Rosy; Indian apps and digital software need to be worked upon more, which will help greatly in their local as well as global adoption.
