National Policy on Software Products 2019
Approved
The 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 of 28
February 2019.
Major impact
The Software product
ecosystem is characterized by innovations, Intellectual Property (IP) creation
and large value addition increase in productivity, which has the potential to
significantly boost revenues and exports in the sector, create substantive
employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in emerging technologies and leverage opportunities available under the Digital India Programme, thus, leading to a boost in inclusive and
sustainable growth.
Expenditure involved
Initially, an outlay
of Rs.1500 Crore is involved to implement the programmes/
schemes envisaged under this policy over the period of 7 years.
Rs1500 Crore is divided into Software Product
Development Fund (SPDF) and Research & Innovation fund.
Implementation
strategy and targets
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 therein.
To achive the
vision of NPSP-2019, the Policy has the following five Missions:
I.
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.
II.
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.
III. 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.
IV. 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.
V.
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.
Background:
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
specialized 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.