Govt invites tech companies to build a secure Zoom alternative

Team Udayavani, Apr 17, 2020, 11:32 AM IST

Zoom video conferencing app has been in the news for quite some time for all the wrong reasons, mainly for its privacy and security issues.

Now, the government has launched a program for Indian tech companies to come up with an encrypted video conferencing solution that works on all platforms. The companies must register for the project by April 30 and the winner gets  ₹1 crore to develop the app.

The app’s requirements include support for poor network connectivity and lower-end devices, multilingual closed captions, and encrypted calls. Also, there must be no dependence on external hardware, audio/video recording feature, screen/file sharing capabilities and more.

Also, this initiative could help India save a lot of money too. Zoom charges $1,999 per month for an enterprise plan that supports 100 hosts. Sources claim that the Central government alone has a strength of 3.8 million posts and there will be a ton of meetings that will happen due to lockdown.