Parliament Question: Selection of Zoho as a Service Provider

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 6043 TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.04.2026 SELECTION OF ZOHO AS A SERVICE PROVIDER 6043. SMT. RACHNA BANERJEE: Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: (a) the details of the tendering process through which Zoho has been selected as a service provider; (b) the details of rate per email account finalised as per this tendering process; and (c) the details of total number of email accounts migrated along with the total amount paid out to Zoho till date? 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. The Government has mandated 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 selection was carried out through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM-CPPP) 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. The monthly pricing for email accounts ranges from ₹170 to ₹300 with 30 GB to 100GB mailbox size being offered. The payments are made based on the actual number of email accounts migrated to the Zoho platform. The number of user accounts of Ministries and Departments migrated so far are around 16.68 Lakhs with the corresponding expenditure being ₹180.10 Crores.*******