GMIS: THE NEW ALTERNATIVE MESSAGING MOBILE APPLICATION FOR INDIA’S GOVERNMENT OF

Posted by Mohit Bharatiya on January 24th, 2020

The Government of India plans to launch its own messaging application similar to Whatsapp for its officials to be able to discuss governmental procedures and political agendas in a secure manner. The application GMIS (Government Instant Messaging Service) is currently being tested by technical developers of the application. The intention behind the development of the mobile messaging application is not to replace Whatsapp or any other popular messaging application out there, but it is solely for the purpose of securing official conversations amongst various governmental departments.

As several messaging applications such as Whatsapp, Wechat, Hangout, etc. are easily hacked and can be accessible to any cyber-criminal. This would protect any sensitive communication between the government and state officials. Many officials mostly discuss these topics on various commercial mobile applications and in this crucial time where there is apparent popularity of cybercrimes. It is very important that the government has its own communication service that would be secured and not prone to cyber hacking. This mobile application is not for any commercial purpose according to government officials.

The GMIS is a messaging platform that is currently in the developmental stages, the government of India is carrying out some pilot test before it is launched and available for usage. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is handling the bits by bits development of this application. The Government Instant Messaging Service mobile application will also have an emailing service that would allow the government and the state officials to send emails with more security and privacy. The application will be able to handle 2 crores mail transactions on a daily basis.

Also, the GIMS would ensure full governmental strategic control over the policy and running of the mobile application. It would also provide a multilingual option in 11 local languages spoken in India. In the initial stages, the GMIS will have just English and Hindi language option, the addition of other languages would be initiated after a period of time.

The mobile messaging application (GIMS) is being developed for both Android and iOS users. It is currently in its beta testing stage. The total number of government organizations that would be utilizing the application is an estimate of 17 organizations which includes the ministry of external affairs (MEA), CBI, ministry of home affairs (MHA), MeitY, the Navy and railway government officials. These organizations are participating in the testing of the GMIS before it is launched. Also, several states across India such as Gujarat and Odisha are also associated and involved in the beta testing process of the Government Instant Messaging Service mobile application.

The growing effects of the Pegasus spyware that can be installed on devices and have the ability to read text messages, track calls, collect private passwords, access mobile cameras and videos, etc. The GMIS would protect the government-private messages and interactions from being hacked by the Pegasus spyware that is been used by the Israeli cyber-arms firms. This is a dangerous territory to not be cautious of and the government is taking the right measures in the development of this secure messaging application.

Mohit Bharatiya is the author of this article. Find more information about Mohit Bharatiya.