Chennai, Oct. 8 -- On 27 September, Jeri John Devegeorge, a senior product manager at enterprise software company Zoho Corporation, was on his way to a religious concert in Chennai. Soon, however, a three-day-old post on microblogging platform X by union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan would scupper those plans.

During a visit to rural Tamil Nadu, Pradhan had visited Zoho's various centres and been briefed on its work. On the evening of 24 September, he posted about the company's instant messaging app, Arattai.

The post on Arattai, a Tamil word for chit-chat, quickly went viral and has received over a million views so far. Soon, people across the country started downloading the app. The Zoho team, led by Devegeorge, who was in cha...