The Union government has migrated around 12.68 lakh official email accounts belonging to various ministries and departments to a cloud-based platform provided by Chennai-based Zoho Corporation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Of these, 7.45 lakh accounts belong to central government employees, the written reply said.
In a written response submitted on December 10, 2025 to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, Minister of State for MeitY Jitin Prasada said the migration was carried out through the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The ministry said NIC remains the mandated provider of official email services for government ministries and departments, and Zoho has been engaged as the Master System Integrator (MSI) to provide a secure, cloud-based email and productivity suite.
MeitY said the model is intended to provide “professional upgrades, seamless migration of existing accounts, and integration of modern office productivity tools such as word processors, spreadsheets and presentation software.” The ministry also emphasized contractual safeguards saying the government retains ownership of all data and intellectual property generated during the engagement and that provisions exist for continuity and rollback if required.
Tender, security checks and disclosure gaps
The ministry noted the migration follows a 2023 tender floated by MeitY to move government email accounts from NIC’s legacy system to a secure cloud service; Zoho won that contract after the procurement process. Several outlets reporting the Lok Sabha reply said NIC conducted the onboarding and that Zoho underwent vetting and proof-of-concept trials as part of the selection process.
However, the written reply did not provide full details on the total cost of migration including software licences, infrastructure, training and the annual recurring expenses since 2023-24, a point raised in the question by the MP and noted by multiple news reports.
Political and public reaction
The shift to an Indian SaaS firm was presented by government sources and several commentators as part of a broader push for “Aatmanirbhar” digital infrastructure and data sovereignty. Senior ministers have publicly begun using Zoho addresses: media reports noted Union Home Minister Amit Shah has switched his official email to Zoho, a move cited by some as symbolic of the policy direction.
At the same time, reporting has flagged questions that remain unanswered in Parliament notably around migration cost, recurring expenditure and the practical arrangements for security audits and oversight of a large cloud rollout. Privacy and security experts have previously said large-scale migrations of government communication warrant transparent disclosure of audit findings and legal safeguards, though the ministry statement underlined contractual ownership and rollback clauses.
What this means going forward
According to industry coverage, the migration is not merely about email but aims to bring a unified collaboration stack to government users mail, documents, spreadsheets and presentations on a domestically built platform. Government sources described ongoing user feedback collection and pilot-to-scale rollout steps; Zoho, for its part, has in past briefings described the move as an ongoing multi-phased migration that can be expanded further.
Parliamentary scrutiny is likely to continue: MPs who asked questions sought cost and audit details, while the ministry’s reply supplied scope and safeguards but left financial specifics undisclosed. Journalists and policy analysts say further transparency on security audits, recurring costs and a timeline for completion of migrations across all departments would help address public interest concerns.
