What is BharOS?

26-08-2023

10:31 AM

1 min read

Prelims: Science & Technology

Overview:

Recently, BharOS, an indigenous mobile operating system was developed by JandK Operations Private Limited, a non-profit organization incubated at IIT Madras and funded by the Department of Science and Technology.

Key Features of BharOS

BharOS is a mobile operating system similar to Android or iOS; it is based on an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) operating system and does not use any Google apps or services.
It would support Native Over The Air (NOTA) updates as well as No Default Apps (NDA).
It has a minimalistic home screen with the Indian flag, a list of app categories, and a selection of apps that have passed the OS's trust and security standards.
It will employ the Private App Store Services (PASS) system to examine and curate apps that are safe for users.
These systems enable smartphone users to interact with their devices and access their features while also ensuring their safety.
Current status: The current version of BharOS includes third-party apps such as DuckDuckGo and Signal by default.

What is Native Over The Air (NOTA)?

Security updates and bug fixes will be automatically installed rather than users having to check for updates and implement them on their own

What is the No Default Apps setting?

Users do not have to keep or use pre-installed apps in this mobile operating system.

Q1) What is an operating system?

An operating system (OS) is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all of the other application programs in a computer.

Source: Explained | What is BharOS software and how different is it from Google’s Android OS?