Govt officials using WhatsApp's made-in-India alternative 'Sandes': Report

New Delhi: In an apparent jab at recent potshots taken by International celebrities on New Delhi’s handling of farmers’ protest, PM Narendra Modi while speaking in the Rajya Sabha on Monday said India needs to be wary of “foreign destructive ideology” —word play on ‘foreign direct investment’. 

This comes even as the government is trying to get its employees off social media and platforms owned by foreign tech companies and shift official communication to locally developed solutions. The government is toying with an indigenously developed WhatsApp-like messaging platform for exchanging official information.

Officials have begun using a messaging platform developed by the government's technology department National Informatics Centre (NIC). For now, only government employees are allowed on this app called 'Sandes' but it might be rolled out for general use later, according to a Business Standard report.

The Sandes app has a similar user interface or look and feel like WhatsApp and is not available on Google Play store. It should not be confused with another commercial app called 'Sandhesh' available on Google Play store. The NIC-developed Sandes (www.gims.gov.in) app can run on Android and iOS mobile operating systems.  

Developed on open source platform, Sandes can be accessed only through official government IDs and works for both  inter- and intra-government processes, according to the report. Sandes is described as a "government messaging app" and was developed in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate work from home in 2020. 

The app made with an aim to secure and for better control over the official exchange of information, comes at a time of increased global scrutiny of international tech giants - which also control major social media networks and messaging platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.