Ensuring privacy & control, IIT-M develops OS for mobile users

CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology – Madras (IIT-M) – incubated firm has come up with an mobile Operating System (OS), which can directly benefit the country’s 100 crore mobile users. The innovation aimed to provide more security to users is viewed as a vital contribution to the Union government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat programme (self-reliant India).

The OS called BharOS, can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets thus providing a secure environment to the users.

As per IIT-M press note, the BharOS services are currently being provided to organisations that have stern privacy policies and security requirements, whose users handle sensitive information that requires confidential communications on restricted applications on mobile. Such users require access to provide cloud services through 5G network.

The OS has been developed by J and K Operations Private Limited (JandKops), which has been incubated by IIT-M’s Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a non-for-profit company established by the institute.

Professor V Kamakoti, director, IIT-Madras, said, “BharOS service is an operating system built on a foundation of trust, with a focus on providing users more freedom, control, and flexibility to choose and use only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionise the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices.”

Kamakoti added, “IIT Madras looks forward to working closely with many more private industry, government agencies, strategic agencies and telecom service providers to increase the usage and adoption of BharOS in India.”

BharOS comes with No Default Apps (NDA). This means that users are not forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or that they may not trust. Additionally, this approach allows users to have more control over the permissions that apps have on their device, as they can choose to only allow apps that they trust to access certain features or data on their device.