Indian Government Denies Launching NAMASTE Video Conferencing Tool to Take on Zoom

The Government of India, contrary to what is being reported by certain sections of the media, has denied launching any video conferencing tool by the name NAMASTE app to take on Zoom. “A news saying that the Government has launched a video conferencing tool ‘NAMASTE’ to take on ‘unsafe’ Zoom is FAKE! Don’t believe such misinformation! Stay Informed, Stay Safe,” tweeted the official MyGov India account on Twitter.

What the Government had instead announced was a couple of days ago was an Innovation Challenge for Video Conferencing Solution in which both industry and academia can participate. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the Digital India programme has invited participation from industry and academia for a challenge to create India’s own indigenous video conferencing tool.

Due to the onslaught of COVID-19 virus and subsequent lockdowns to curb the spread of the disease, organizations have shifted a large part of their workforce to work from home, which has made video conferencing tools extremely pertinent in current times. Therefore, MeitY has announced the challenge to develop a Video Conferencing Solution that shows capabilities in terms of scalability, market reach, and domestic value addition.

MeitY said that the winner will receive Rs 1 crore and a certificate from the Minister of Electronics and IT towards deploying the solution for use by Government of India and State Governments for a year and further support at Rs 10 lakhs per year towards operations and maintenance, for a period of 3 years.

Nevertheless, the Innovation Challenge for Video Conferencing Solution is still in a stage wherein applications are being accepted for the competition. Considering that, there is still no question of an app called NAMASTE being released by the government just yet.