Anand Mahindra says he downloaded Zoho’s Arattai “with pride”; Sridhar Vembu reacts...

Billionaire industrialist and Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said he downloaded Zoho’s Made-in-India messaging app Arattai “with pride.”

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Mahindra's post drawn praise from Zoho co-founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu. 

“I was in a meeting in our Tenkasi office with our Arattai engineers, working out refinements to the app, and a team member showed me this tweet. Thank you anandmahindra, this gives us even more determination,” Vembu wrote on X, responding to Mahindra’s post.

I was in a meeting in our Tenkasi office with our Arattai engineers, working out refinements to the app and a team member showed this tweet.

Thank you @anandmahindra
this gives us even more determination 🙏 https://t.co/5MtyhTkRZf

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) October 4, 2025

Arattai, which means “chat” in Tamil, has been gaining traction as a homegrown alternative to foreign messaging platforms. Downloads have surged in recent weeks following government ministries’ endorsement of Zoho apps as part of PM Narendra Modi’s Swadeshi push.

Last month, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also posted on X that he was moving to Zoho’s office suite, including tools for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, in a push to promote local technology and services.

“I am moving to Zoho — our own Swadeshi platform for documents, spreadsheets & presentations. I urge all to join PM Shri narendramodi Ji’s call for Swadeshi by adopting indigenous products & services,” he wrote.

The education ministry also directed all government offices under its purview to adopt the Zoho Office Suite for preparing and managing official documents. While the Swadeshi push is not limited to Zoho, Vembu’s company is receiving special attention given its offerings as alternatives to Microsoft’s products. In fact, it also offers browser named Ulaa.

Last week, Vembu said that Arattai “was a hopelessly foolish project” and that “even our employees expressed skepticism that Arattai would ever gain traction.”

He added that Zoho continues to invest heavily in R&D, with projects spanning compilers, databases, operating systems, security, chip design, hardware, robotics and AI. The company has also backed several research-intensive ventures that may not generate returns in the near term.

“Zoho is like an industrial research lab that also makes money to fund itself. We essentially ignore short-term profits as long as we don’t lose money,” Vembu said, adding that the company’s culture emphasizes frugality and long-term innovation.

For those who don't know, Arattai is an alternative to Meta’s WhatsApp, which offers standard messaging features, including one-to-one and group chats, voice notes, and media sharing. It also supports audio and video calls, multi-device access across mobile, desktop, and Android TV, as well as stories and channels for broadcasts.

In a recent post on X, Vembu said Arattai’s core focus is user privacy, “a thing which giants often compromise with.”

Our focus is privacy. We will not adopt a business model that puts privacy at risk.

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) October 4, 2025