India developing its own OS to boost cybersecurity

The Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is developing the country’s own operating system (OS) in a bid to establish a more robust cybersecurity environment.

India currently is dependent on many imported OSes based on Windows and Linux, which are likely to have malicious worms and security issues, DRDO’s Director-General VK Saraswat said at the Navigation and Communication (NAVCOM) conference, The Times of India reported Thursday. Hence, it is essential India builds its own operating system, he said.

Saraswat added the DRDO is 18 months into a programme in which 150 engineers across the country had been working on creating an Indian OS. It will take another three years before this platform will be ready, he said.

The made-in-India OS does not involve any foreign investments and is exclusively “India’s effort”, Saraswat noted. He also advised defence researchers and scientists to start working together with the industry, DRDO, and other scientific departments to drive the development of the OS, so “[India is] independent from what is coming from [the] outside world”.

This initiative is part of India’s latest efforts to beef up its cybersecurity. Earlier this week, the government unveiled a five-year plan to revamp the country’s cybersecurity posture, whereby, operations will be coordinated and connected to major critical infrastructure agencies across India, to monitor real-time information and react faster to cyberattacks.