BharOS the New Mobile Operating System
The Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently tested ‘BharOS’, an indigenous operating system developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT). They congratulated the team behind the design and noted that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi first proposed a digital India eight years ago, some people mocked it. Still, it has now been accepted by technocrats, innovators, industries, policymakers, and academic institutions in the country. Both ministers acknowledged that there would be difficulties in the journey toward digital India, but they are determined to overcome them and make the system successful.
BharOS: What is it?
BharOS is an operating system built on the Linux kernel and was created by the IIT-Madras-incubated company JandK Operations Limited, according to V Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras. He has stated, “We have utilized some early versions of Linux — it’s essentially a derivation of the Linux kernel.”
How does it work?
On readily available commercial mobile devices, BharOS can be installed. IIT Madras said before that BharOS does not come with any default applications. Furthermore, BharOS has security procedures including the root of trust and chain of trust, according to Kamakoti, who also spoke to Money control.
This implies that the operating system is intended to stop functioning if any changes are made to its Software . BharOS will also give users access to apps from privately owned app stores that are specialized to certain organizations (PASS). According to a statement from IIT-Madras, “A PASS enables access to a selected list of apps that have been properly reviewed and have satisfied specific security and privacy standards.”
In addition, the system allows Native Over The Air updates, according to Karthik Ayyar, director of the company that created BharOS, which would guarantee that the gadget is always running the most recent OS version, including security patches and bug fixes.
What is the need for BharOS?
BharOS is an operating system developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) with the goal of providing a level playing field and fair competition in the app market by not having any default apps installed. This allows users to choose which apps they want to use, rather than being forced to use apps pre-installed on the device. The IIT-Madras director, Kamakoti, compared a mobile handset to a “digital home” and said that the presence of default apps is like “strangers inside the digital home.”
How is BharOS different from Android and iOS operating software?
BharOS is actually based on Android Open Source Project (AOSP) so it is more similar to Android than iOS. The only difference between Android and BharOS is that the latter doesn’t include any Google services, allowing users to download any application of their choice.
BharOS also comes without any pre-installed applications, giving users the option to download APK files that can be found easily on the internet. However, such files can be potentially dangerous for your devices.
According to Karthik Ayyar, the director of JandK Operations Pvt Ltd, BharOS offers “Native Over The Air” (NOTA) updates that help keep the device safe. He also said that trusted apps from specific Private App Store Services (PASS) may be downloaded on devices running BharOS in the absence of any Google Play services.
“A PASS provides access to a curated list of apps that have been thoroughly vetted and have met certain security and privacy standards of organizations. This means users can be confident that the apps they are installing are safe to use and have been checked for any potential security vulnerabilities or privacy concerns,” the press release stated.
It appears that BharOS’ default browsing and messaging apps are third-party services like DuckDuckGo and Signal. For now, it’s unclear if BharOS team will collaborate with manufacturers to develop phones powered by BharOS.
