The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released a draft paper on the National Policy for Software Products (pdf), aimed at promoting and stimulating the software products ecosystem. To execute the suggestions in the draft paper, MeitY will launch a ‘National Software Product Mission’ with participants from the industry. The agency is accepting comments/views on the paper at ajaik@meity.gov.in and sanjeevk.gupta@meity.gov.in, till the 2nd of December. MeitY has updated its deadline and is now accepting comments till the 9th of December. According to MeitY, the IT industry can contribute up to $350 billion to the GDP, and generate 30 million jobs by 2020. However, the Ministry mentions that various bottlenecks like low employability of existing talent, lack of infrastructure development, competition from other low cost countries etc., need to be addressed to promote growth in the sector. The agency said that currently, the total revenue of software products industry in India is around $6.1 billion out of the total $143 billion generated by the Indian IT industry, with the major contribution coming from the IT services industry. Setting up an Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group: MeitY asks for setting up an Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group to address concerns that are specific to the software product industries, including ensuring the ease of doing business in the country. A consultation process under this group will also define parameters like what are software products, digital products/goods and software products company. The agency will also enable incorporation of software products companies through a fully online…
