The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has informed the Lok Sabha that around 12.68 lakh official email accounts across various ministries and departments have been migrated to a Zoho-based cloud email platform. Of these, 7.45 lakh accounts belong to Central government employees. This represents only a small portion of the 50.14 lakh-strong Central government workforce.
According to MeitY, the migration was executed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which continues to be the authorised provider of official email services. Zoho was selected as the Master System Integrator after MeitY floated a 2023 tender to transition government email services from NIC’s legacy platform to a secure, cloud-based solution.
Minister of State for MeitY Jitin Prasada stated that the contract ensures the Government of India retains full ownership of all data and intellectual property generated during the engagement, with provisions for continuity and rollback if needed. However, he did not disclose the overall cost of migration, including spending on licensing, infrastructure, training or the recurring annual expenses since FY 2023–24.
MeitY highlighted that Zoho’s platform includes built-in security features such as end-to-end data encryption, multi-factor authentication, geo-fencing, IP-based access controls and protection against email spoofing. The service is designed for 99.9% uptime, supported by disaster recovery sites located in separate seismic zones with strict recovery time benchmarks.
The solution also offers multiple subscription tiers Standard, Business and Enterprise with integrated tools for calendar management, task scheduling and secure file sharing.
The move comes at a time when the government is increasingly promoting indigenous technology solutions. Senior ministers including Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan have publicly encouraged citizens to adopt Zoho’s suite of tools. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has also showcased Zoho software during several cabinet briefings.
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