‘Namaste’ video conferencing tool is not launched by the government

With security concerns over the ‘Zoom’ video conferencing application and the Ministry of Home Affairs issuing an advisory on the application, a piece of news is being shared on social media with a claim that the government has launched a beta version of new video conferencing tool – ‘Namaste’. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.

Claim: Government of India launched a beta version of a new video conferencing tool – ‘Namaste’.

Fact: ‘Namaste’ website is powered by ‘inscripts’, a private company, which is headquartered in Mumbai. Also, the Government has denied launching any such tool. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.   

When searched about the tool, the website of ‘Namaste’ was found in the search results. On the ‘Namaste’ website, it can be seen that it is powered by ‘inscripts’. On the ‘inscripts’ website, it can be read that it is a private company, which is headquartered in Mumbai. It mentions that it provides high-end products to the customers and ‘Namaste’ is listed in their product list. There is no mention of it being launched by the government.

As the news went viral, the government portals (MyGovIndia and PIB) have debunked the claim and tweeted that it is fake news. Also, ‘MyGovIndia’ mentioned that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced an innovation challenge for ‘Made in India’ video conferencing solution.

After the clarification from the government, the ‘Firstpost’ has made a correction to their article. The initial version can be seen here.

To sum it up, ‘Namaste’ video conferencing tool was not launched by the government.

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