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India Planning Homegrown Operating System to Rival iOS and Android
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I live outside the US and use Whatsapp daily for work, family, etc. That doesn’t mean the Indian OS would have a future with just Whatsapp in it -which it probably wouldn’t- unless it really is just an Android fork.
Lower income Indians might want to access basic entertainment -YouTube, Tik Tok equivalent, casual games, etc- If the only usefulness of the new OS is to make calls and do whatsapp why even bother doing it.
I usually don't partake in such ethnocentric threads, that usually exhibit western bias, but here's a bit of a slight insight on the Indian contributions that have helped shape the world as we see it today!
1 Atomism
The earliest mention of the concept of the atom dates back to India. A couple of popular schools of thought dating back to the 6th century BC developed theories about how atoms combined to form more complex objects. References to atoms in the West emerged about a century later.
2 Zero
Zero was recognized as a number and not merely a symbol of separation amongst all other numbers in India. Basic calculations – including multiplications and divisions were already carried out considering zero as any other number from the 9th century AD.
3 Trigonometric functions
The functions of sine and cosine can be traced back to India. Although the study of trigonometry can be dated back to the ancient times, there is evidence that these two values were being used in the 5th century AD.
4 Modern decimal system
What we use as the modern decimal system was compiled in its entirety in India. Although other cultures had introduced some features of the numeric system beforehand, it was completed in India by the 9th century AD.
Not to mention invention Yoga, Ayurveda, Meditation, Cataract surgery, USB... the list goes on and on..
Here's another small list : https://shreegauranga.org/indias-contribution-to-the-world/
1 Atomism
The earliest mention of the concept of the atom dates back to India. A couple of popular schools of thought dating back to the 6th century BC developed theories about how atoms combined to form more complex objects. References to atoms in the West emerged about a century later.
2 Zero
Zero was recognized as a number and not merely a symbol of separation amongst all other numbers in India. Basic calculations – including multiplications and divisions were already carried out considering zero as any other number from the 9th century AD.
3 Trigonometric functions
The functions of sine and cosine can be traced back to India. Although the study of trigonometry can be dated back to the ancient times, there is evidence that these two values were being used in the 5th century AD.
4 Modern decimal system
What we use as the modern decimal system was compiled in its entirety in India. Although other cultures had introduced some features of the numeric system beforehand, it was completed in India by the 9th century AD.
Not to mention invention Yoga, Ayurveda, Meditation, Cataract surgery, USB... the list goes on and on..
Here's another small list : https://shreegauranga.org/indias-contribution-to-the-world/
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If the hardware’s cheap (subsidized) such that people who can’t afford a phone today can get one of these even with JUST WhatsApp on it, that opens a world of options to them that wouldn’t have been available before. Consider, if you had no phone, but then had the option to have a phone, but that phone only has one app, which would be more beneficial, WhatsApp or YouTube? Or TikTok? Or a casual game?
And, again, that’s all it has to have for the INITIAL effort. Once it’s out, they can iterate on the less essential software, bringing more features over time. The second hardware release would, as a result, have a more fleshed out software library. And, it would definitely have the interest of many developers even without an SDK (like iPhone year one), just because it exists.
Is there a government trying to build an alternate internet and WWW right now? If yes, I'm happy to say that doesn't make sense either (or it's nefarious).
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Good plan. Apparently it is so easy to create a mobile OS that Microsoft gave up on it years ago.
Both the internet and the WWW were government funded projects. Without these government projects to kick things off, it is unlikely we would be having this conversation online. I agree somewhat that have the private sector carry the ball makes sense for both the internet and the WWW, but government research was essential to getting it all started.
No, it’s hard and takes awhile. Microsoft’s shareholders were likely not going to wait much longer, so they killed the effort. If this is one of those “deep pockets” things governments do from time to time, the requirements for continuing to spend will have different rules than Microsoft was under.
My favorite non-government funded project? The highway system! I mean, when I was born, they were here so they must have been here all along, right? I don’t even know why I read that Louis and Clark had a rough time, they should have just stayed on the main roads, really. /s
The problem isn't the communication, the problem is the mentality and culture. I've also experienced Indian devs a few times, and am in no hurry to repeat the experience. They pump out code fast, that works, but is an unmaintainable mess, so burns you pretty quickly down the track.
I wish them luck, if they can pull it off, then that's great news for the world, but I just can't see it happening.
That’s all fine. So many cultures did great things in the past, they all did many horrific things in the past also, but we don’t live in the past.
We live in the present so we only talk about the present. India has many problems, more than any other big nation, and it requires humility to address them before it is too late.
That’s common in creative fields too. Some CGI and commercial work is sent to India because they work hard and fast but the quality is a mixed bag and sometimes sloppy. They use the cheapest labor they can find, train them on the job, and replacement rate is very high so they have to train people coming in to replace the people they dumped.
The ones they dump go work for scam call centers or crypto pump n dump scam groups if they can’t find a respectful tech/creative company to work for.
This will be developed by private entities within India with the requirement that the source code be turned over to the government along with development tools. The purpose of all of this is not a government mandated mobile OS, but one the government of India can use for its own internal applications be it for civilian or national security, and if there are commercial spin offs, then all the better. Right now, in the US, the federal government uses locked down iOS mobile devices with iron clad guarantees of security from AAPL - the federal government won't touch Android. Similarly, large growing countries like India or China, need to have their own mobile OS. There are reports within India, that the biometric ID system which contains user taxpayer identification and voter registration of over 900 million people has been hacked/accessed by US intelligence agencies. As more mobile devices will be used in the future, this sort of issue becomes a concern.
There is a precedent to this. In the early days of embedded computing devices (1960s-1980s) that were on defense and aerospace applications - custom OSes, source code and development tools were made by the big defense contractors and handed over to the particular military branch within DoD.
There is a precedent to this. In the early days of embedded computing devices (1960s-1980s) that were on defense and aerospace applications - custom OSes, source code and development tools were made by the big defense contractors and handed over to the particular military branch within DoD.
Major manufacturers should use the software on their smartphones for it to be successful.
I highly support this! I think it's good for people to create what's best for them. I myself am constantly looking for ways to break free of the typical ios/android system and have seem to found my own little niche (The Light Phone/iPod Touch) (Yes I know that's ios in the latter, but regardless it's a very different usage, and ipod touches are small like older iphones, which I absolutely love)
I don’t see it being successful. The Indian government is highly corrupt and somewhat incompetent, and their tech initiatives often end up coming to nothing…
Cool story, but you keep sidestepping the fact that many mobile operating systems exist or have existed. The interwebs did not. That makes a huge difference when discussing if the government involved effort “makes sense”.
Using this logic, any and all government funded efforts make sense because, you know, WWW.
This is true for major part which prevented Indian Engineers coming up with its own OS, ecosystem, Assembly language, Machine Instructions (closer to native language), computer language, instead IT guys have to translate alien language constructs, business, solutions sitting remotely deciphering into their own mother tongue and to deliver the solution. There have been other political reasons as well why this hasn't happened so far. Indian Software pros have been successful in delivering one of the best homegrown solutions in Adhaar (Identity) and Payments (UPI) almost replaced Visa, MasterCard and other payment methods. Very simple QR Code and Mobile Based integrated (Banks) payment is doing transactions in billions every day. If all the computer literature, associated foundations were constructed in native linguistics like it is in USA, probably Indian OS would have become reality by now.
That's possible only if the manufacturers agree for not insisting patent infringements law suits on Indian makers (like they did with China). Tax concessions will be given but just creating smokescreen manufacturing shops of dead technology but asking for waiver of import tarrif will be met with stiff resistance. India respects International laws and abide to patent laws, hence it needs to be equally compensated for protecting the business in the form of tax.
Translation usually leaves a lot to be desired, even if you speak fluently a language, you could still say something that in a culture could be misinterpreted. (Language is one part of the equation, you have to know the culture and the slang sometimes to get the point trought.)
There are words that can mean similar things yet have different accent and power and they do add up.
My issue with Indian developers is that when you say what you want, they usually understand the grand scheme of things, but when you go into detail everything goes bananas...
It is mostly down to communication, so I can def relate to their issue with translating code in a language not of their own.