How Rakesh Deskmukh is Enabling More and More Indians Indus OS became the second largest operating system in India with 7.6 per cent market share leaving behind iOS and Windows

During his second venture moFirst Solutions in 2013, Deshmukh realized the gap in the way around 800 million smartphone users, who primarily spoke in their native language, understood smartphone usage and the way smartphone makers perceived it to be.

"People didn't know how to use a smartphone, forget about the language support. It was tough for them to even locate icons," says Deshmukh. Moreover, it was tough for them to type in their language. He launched Indus OS, in May 2015, with important icons like calls and messages displayed on the home page, similar to a feature phone. The biggest step that Deshmukh took last year was to integrate its services with various service providers in the operating system (OS) itself, beginning with cab hailing firm Ola.

"There are apps on the users' phones which are not used frequently and eat up a lot of space. So we thought of integrating these content or services in our OS." It also launched Recharge 2.0 feature in the phone dialer for users to manage data and talktime balance. Deshmukh last year setup an office in China to work strategically with Chinese smartphone brands following their rise in India.

As per a report by market research firm Counterpoint Research, in January last year, Indus OS became the second largest operating system in India with 7.6 per cent market share leaving behind iOS and Windows.