BharOS, the indigenous mobile operating system wants to cater to the approximately 100 crore mobile phone users in India.

• BharOS is an indigenous mobile operating system (OS), like Android or iOS.
• It is developed by JandK Operations Private Limited, a non-profit organization incubated at IIT Madras and funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
• BharOS is meant to be a contribution towards the idea of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by creating a secure OS environment for India-based users.

Features of BharOS

• BharOS appears to be more specialised with greater focus on app customisation and is still in limited use at the moment.
• BharOS is an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) based operating system with no Google apps or services.
• BharOS would offer Native Over The Air (NOTA) updates and No Default Apps (NDA) setting.
• This features a minimalistic home screen with the Indian flag, a list of app categories, and selected apps which had passed the OS’ trust and security standards.
• BharOS will use Private App Store Services (PASS) system, which will examine and curate the apps that are safe for the users.
• These systems help smartphone users interact with their device and access its features, while ensuring safety.
• Present status – The current version of BharOS comes with third-party apps like DuckDuckGo and Signal as default browsers and messaging apps.
• The OS can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets.
• It will be collaborated with smartphone manufacturers in the future to launch cell phones with BharOS.