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Govt moves 16.68 lakh email IDs to Zoho cloud platform, spends Rs 180 crore
Rs 180 crore spend backs push for secure, sovereign email system
NEW DELHI: The government has migrated around 16.68 lakh official email accounts to a cloud platform operated by Zoho, with total spending touching Rs 180.10 crore so far, Parliament was informed.
The update was shared by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in the Lok Sabha on April 1, highlighting a steady expansion of the Centre’s push towards a secure, homegrown digital infrastructure.
The migration has been carried out by the National Informatics Centre, which appointed Zoho as the master system integrator following a competitive bidding process on the Government e-Marketplace. The selection included a proof of concept phase involving shortlisted vendors and government users.
At its core, the initiative is aimed at creating a secure and sovereign email ecosystem for ministries and departments, with the government retaining full ownership of data and intellectual property. The shift also reflects a broader push to reduce reliance on global platforms for critical communication infrastructure.
Costs are tied to usage. The government pays between Rs 170 and Rs 300 per account per month, depending on storage capacity, which ranges from 30 GB to 100 GB. Billing is based on the number of active accounts migrated to the system.
The latest numbers mark a significant jump from December, when about 12.68 lakh accounts had been moved, including 7.45 lakh belonging to central government employees. The pace of migration suggests an accelerated rollout across departments in recent months.
With millions of accounts already onboarded, the project signals a clear shift towards digital sovereignty in official communications. As adoption deepens, the focus will likely turn to performance, scalability and user experience, ensuring that security does not come at the cost of efficiency.
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UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
