'A feeling of safety': Govt officials get WhatsApp-like messaging app

To get government employees to avoid using social media or platforms that might not be considered secure for exchanging official information, India has begun to experiment with a locally developed version of WhatsApp. While its use is restricted to government officials for now, experts hope to deploy this new app on a larger scale in the future.

Called Sandes (www.gims.gov.in), the messaging app has the look and feel of WhatsApp and is not to be confused with apps available on Google Play with similar sounding names such as Sandesh. It has been designed by the government’s technology department, the National Informatics Centre (NIC), can run on android and iOS, and supports both voice and data.

The app describes itself as a “government instant messaging system” and the log-in is open only to government employees. Developed in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic made remote working the norm, it works anywhere for both inter- and intra-government processes and was built on an open architecture.

The Sandes app comes at a time when there is a global debate on data nationalism among countries. While China has created a firewall around its tech environment, concerns have been rife about the data privacy norms of social media companies in recent times.

Officials in some ministries have begun to use Sandes to communicate with each other. Since the backend of the app is handled by the NIC, it provides a feeling of safety when sharing sensitive information or transferring data, an official said.

However, a former senior NIC official said the experiment may be difficult to sustain unless NIC hands over the app’s technical support to a commercial entity at some stage. The official cited the example of the Indian Space Research Organisation, which has begun to transfer technology to not just the government-run NewSpace India Limited but has also issued a draft policy to invite private sector participation in space technology. Because of the sensitive nature of the issues involved, none of these officials was willing to be named.

The Indian government has been trying to address the problem of ensuing secure communication among its officials, especially the sharing of data, for a long time. In 2017, top officers were given customised Google Pixel phones with Reliance Jio SIM cards. However, as officers retire or move on, the exercise needs to be replicated every year. So this practice was gradually abandoned.

While every government official has a NIC log-in with a mail service, the usual challenges of a customised service dependent on government-run technical support persists. First of all, NIC’s mail service is bulky and hence difficult to use on smartphones, unlike Gmail or Yahoo Mail. One official said the reason is that the security architecture of email.gov.in makes it difficult to install it on anything other than a laptop.

The Sandes platform seeks to address this problem as it is suitable for smartphone use. Those who have used it — only a few thousand have so far — say that the experience has been pleasant and data transfer smooth.