New Delhi, Sept. 30 -- Sridhar Vembu's Zoho Corp. is back in the spotlight thanks to its messaging app Arattai, which it launched with little fanfare almost five years ago. Boosted by the government's 'Make in India' push and rising US tariff tensions, the app has gone viral of late, topping the Apple App Store's social networking charts.

The question now is whether Arattai will challenge entrenched giants such as WhatsApp and Telegram in India, or follow the path of Bharti Airtel's Hike and Twitter clone Koo, which shut down last year.

What is Arattai, and why is it suddenly going viral?

Arattai (meaning 'casual talk' or 'chit chat' in Tamil) was released in January 2021, around the time WhatsApp rolled out changes to its privacy poli...