Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has said he is switching to Zoho, India’s homegrown software for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. He asked people to follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to use Swadeshi products.
“I am moving to Zoho — our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. I urge all to join PM Narendra Modi’s call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products & services,” Vaishnaw wrote on X.
I am moving to Zoho — our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. 🇮🇳
I urge all to join PM Shri @narendramodi Ji’s call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products & services. pic.twitter.com/k3nu7bkB1S
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) September 22, 2025
Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu welcomed the move, saying, “Thank you, Sir, this is a huge morale boost for our engineers who have worked hard for over two decades to build our product suite. We will make you proud and make our nation proud. Jai Hind.”
What Is Zoho App?
Zoho Corporation was started in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas. It is based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Earlier, it was called AdventNet and became Zoho in 2009.
Among the more than 55 business apps that Zoho provides are email, accounting, human resources, project management, CRM, and more. ‘Made in India’ is its tagline. ‘Made for the world’ shows its desire to remain Indian while serving the globe.
Zoho has over 130 million users in 150 countries. Big companies like Amazon, Netflix, Deloitte, Puma, Toyota, Sony, and L’Oreal use it.
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Zoho has tools similar to Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace:
- Zoho Writer – for documents
- Zoho Sheet – for spreadsheets
- Zoho Show – for presentations
- Zoho Mail, Zoho Cliq, Zoho Calendar, Zoho Meeting – for communication
- Zoho WorkDrive – for safe cloud storage
Other tools include:
- Zoho CRM – customer management
- Zoho Books – accounting
- Zoho People – HR management
- Zoho Recruit – hiring
- Zoho Vault & Zoho Lens – IT security and remote support
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Zoho AI Initiatives
Zoho is also working on artificial intelligence. It launched Zia LLM, an AI tool that helps businesses summarize data, find insights, generate code, and make decisions while keeping information safe.
It also has Zia Agent Studio, a no-code platform to make AI “digital employees.” These AI agents can screen job candidates, analyze sales deals, and suggest opportunities. Over 25 AI agents are ready for use.
Zoho Projects Pricing
Zoho Projects is their tool for managing projects. It has three plans:
- Free Plan – 5 users, 5 GB storage, free forever
- Premium Plan – $4 per user/month (approx. Rs 353), up to 50 users, 100 GB storage
- Enterprise Plan – $9 per user/month (approx. Rs 796), unlimited users, 120 GB storage
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These plans include templates for projects and work with tools like Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and Zendesk.
Boosting Digital Self-Reliance
Moving to Zoho is more than just a personal decision for Ashwini Vaishnaw. It shows India’s drive for Atmanirbharta, or digital independence. Reliance on foreign businesses is decreased by using Indian software.
Zoho has had difficulties, such as the halting of its $700 million Karnataka semiconductor project because of a lack of partners. However, the business is expanding internationally. Startups, SMEs, and large corporations in India may begin utilizing in-house software as a result of government authorities embracing it.
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