Mumbai Startup's New Multilingual OS Ensures All Of India Can Get Online

Mumbai-based startup Indus OS has designed a localised version of Android for India, and plans to cater their system to regional and social factors prevalent in the country. For one, the startup’s operating system is available in 12 languages, which, according to the BBC, covers 90 percent of India’s population.

Moreover, India is a country where the majority of the population is not fluent in English. Just through these two tweaks Indus OS has exponentially expanded their market. With such a large base of potential consumer Indus OS has already struck a deal with the local company Intex, and through said partnership has subsequently shook hands with many of India’s leading phone brands, such as, Mircomax, Karbonn, Celkon and Swipe. Intex is currently estimated at controlling 10 percent of the Indian market.

However, those number pale in comparison to Google's Android, who are said to power nine out of 10 smartphones sold in India. It is clear Google's presence has made it difficult for other major players to strengthen their presence. Nevertheless, Indus OS thinks they can give them a run for their money. Rakesh Deshmukh, Indus OS’ co-founder and CEO, explains to TechCrunch, “our goal is to get OEMs to sign up...now we want to go ahead and work with Chinese and international brands.”And perhaps through a few of their other improvements this plan will prove to be feasible.

Indus OS is also providing a patented technology developed as a simplified predictive typing and translation between regional languages. Moreover, they have an in-house app store, similar to Google Play, which provides 35,000 apps in regional languages. Another feature Indus OS hopes will aid the adoption of their operating system is using phone bills as a payment option for downloading apps. This option may help their system a great deal as it is speculated that more than half of India's population is without a debit or credit card. No matter the operating system, we are going to see a lot more Android users in rural areas who are being targeted by its vendors.

Image Courtesy of Networked India

Words By: Julian Manning