India launches National Policy on Software Products
India’s Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the National Policy on Software Products — 2019 to develop India as a Software Product Nation.
Initially, an outlay of Rs.1500 Crore is involved to implement the programmes/ schemes envisaged under this policy over the period of 7 years. Rs 1500 Crore is divided into Software Product Development Fund (SPDF) and Research & Innovation fund.
“The Indian IT Industry has predominantly been a service Industry. However, a need has been felt to move up the value chain through technology oriented products and services. To create a robust software product ecosystem the Government has approved the National Policy on Software Products — 2019, which aims to develop India as the global software product hub, driven by innovation, improved commercialisation, sustainable Intellectual Property (IP), promoting technology startups and specialised skill sets. Further, the Policy aims to align with other Government initiatives such as Start-up India, Make in India and Digital India, Skill India etc so as to create Indian Software products Industry of USD ~70–80 billion with direct & indirect employment of ~3.5 million by 2025,” read a communiqué from the government.
The Policy will lead to the formulation of several schemes, initiatives, projects and measures for the development of Software products sector in the country as per the roadmap envisaged.
To achive the vision of NPSP-2019, the Policy has the following five Missions:
- To promote the creation of a sustainable Indian software product industry, driven by intellectual property (IP), leading to a ten-fold increase in India share of the Global Software product market by 2025.
- To nurture 10,000 technology startups in software product industry, including 1000 such technology startups in Tier-II and Tier-III towns & cities and generating direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million people by 2025.
- To create a talent pool for software product industry through (i) up-skilling of 1,000,000 IT professionals, (ii) motivating 100,000 school and college students and (iii) generating 10,000 specialized professionals that can provide leadership.
- To build a cluster-based innovation driven ecosystem by developing 20 sectoral and strategically located software product development clusters having integrated ICT infrastructure, marketing, incubation, R&D/testbeds and mentoring support.
- In order to evolve and monitor scheme & programmes for the implementation of this policy, National Software Products Mission will be set up with participation from Government, Academia and Industry.
“The National Policy on Software Products 2019 is a positive step towards empowering India to become global software products hub. The policy recommendations are aligned to Nasscom’s suggestions on sectorial software product development clusters, talent accelerator programs and the initiative to nurturing of software products start-ups under TIDE 2.0 and NGIS. Building on the long term objective of Nasscom and the Government, it proposes to create a talent pool of skilled software product developers with over one million entry level professionals by 2025. Today, there is increased convergence of hardware and software, which is creating a new segment in product innovation, we hope that the government will take cognisance of this trend and will align its initiatives. We will continue working with the Government and other stakeholders to ensure a conducive policy for the industry at large to build a sustainable business environment; Nasscom hopes that the policy will drive the creation of at least 30 product driven companies from India by 2025,” read a communiqué from Nasscom.
