Frontlist | Wary of ‘foreign destructive ideology’, govt officials given made-in-India WhatsApp alternative

In an apparent jab at recent potshots taken by International celebrities on New Delhi’s handling of farmers’ protest, PM Narendra Modi while speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Monday said India needs to be wary of “foreign destructive ideology” —word play on ‘foreign direct investment’. This comes even as the government is trying to get its employees off social media and platforms owned by foreign tech companies and shift official communication to locally developed solutions. The government is toying with an indigenously developed WhatsApp-like messaging platform for exchanging official information. Developed on open source platform, Sandes can be accessed only through official government IDs and works for both  inter- and intra-government processes, according to the report. Sandes is described as a government messaging app and was developed in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate work from home in 2020. The app made with an aim to secure and for better control over the official exchange of information, comes at a time of increased global scrutiny of international tech giants - which also control major social media networks and messaging platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. Source: Times Now