The Indian government has shifted approximately 16.68 lakh official email accounts onto a cloud-based system managed by Zoho, with the total spending so far reaching Rs 180.10 crore, as reported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in the Lok Sabha on April 1.
In addition, this large-scale migration was implemented through the National Informatics Centre, which was responsible for overseeing the process and appointing Zoho as the Master System Integrator to deliver a cloud-based email service for government users.
Read on to find out all the details!
India Migrates 16.68 Lakh Government Email Accounts to Zoho Cloud, Spending Rs 180.10 Crore
Moreover, Zoho’s selection was not arbitrary; it followed a structured bidding process conducted via the Government e-Marketplace (GeM-CPPP). This process included a proof of concept phase where shortlisted vendors demonstrated their solutions to government user groups before a final decision was made.
At the same time, the government emphasized that the primary goal of this initiative is to create a secure and sovereign email infrastructure for its ministries and departments, ensuring that all data and intellectual property remain fully under government ownership and control.
Moving to the cost structure, the monthly pricing for each email account varies between Rs 170 and Rs 300. This variation depends on the storage capacity provided, which ranges from 30 GB to 100 GB per mailbox.
Government Adopts Usage-Based Payment Model for Cloud Email Migration
Furthermore, the payment model is usage-based, meaning the government pays according to the number of email accounts that have been successfully migrated to the new platform.
Notably, this recent update reflects a significant increase compared to earlier figures shared in December, when approximately 12.68 lakh accounts had been transitioned to the Zoho-powered system.
Finally, out of those earlier figures, around 7.45 lakh accounts belonged specifically to central government employees, highlighting the scale and gradual expansion of this digital infrastructure shift across government bodies.
