Lok Sabha Question No. 1803 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-10
Subject: Agreement with Zoho
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Mr Pathan Yusuf

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1803

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 10.12.2025

## AGREEMENT WITH ZOHO

## 1803. MR PATHAN YUSUF:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether the  Government entered into an agreement in 2023 for migration of Central Government email services, including Ministry and Departmental accounts, to Zoho Corporation's cloud platform, if so, the details of the tender process, comparative evaluation of bids and the number of user accounts migrated so far;
- (b) the number of audit and security-compliance assessments, including those by CERT-In and NIC, completed prior to migration; and
- (c) whether the Government proposes to disclose hosting locations, data sovereignty provisions and continuityof-service safeguards in the vendor contract, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) to (c) : The Government recognises the critical importance of having a robust, sovereign and secure official email system for its Ministries and Departments. Accordingly, the Government mandates that only email services provided by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) shall be used for official communication.

To ensure this, the government through NIC has selected a Master System Integrator (MSI) -M/s Zoho as a robust cloud-based email solution capable of supporting all Government users.

The model ensures professional upgrades, seamless migration of existing accounts, and integration of modern office productivity tools such as word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation software.

It provides government employees with an access to a unified collaboration suite developed in India. The number of user accounts of Ministries and Departments migrated so far are around 12.68 Lakhs.

The selection was carried out through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) bidding process, which included a Proof of Concept (PoC) with shortlisted bidders and designated groups of government users.

The project emphasises 'Make in India' compliance and ensures that the Government retains full ownership of all data and intellectual property generated under the contract.

After the email service went live on the new Zoho platform, online feedback was collected from users across various Ministries and Departments.

Robust security evaluations have been undertaken to ensure safe migration and deployment:

- Comprehensive security audit by Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC), MeitY in May 2024
- Second  full  security  audit  by  Centre  for  Development  of  Advanced  Computing  (C-DAC),  MeitY  in August 2025

The contract with the service provider ensures strict adherence to data sovereignty. The cloud-based solution, including Primary and Disaster Recovery data centers, are physically located within India, and no data can be shared or replicated outside the country.

The Service Provider -M/s Zoho is a registered Indian entity subject to Indian laws and jurisdiction. ******