Govt to Soon Launch a National Policy for Software Products


BENGALURU: The Indian software industry was always dominated by the private companies and witnessed a recent e-commerce penetration.

The phenomenon is soon to modify as the government is working on a national policy for this sector. Reports Economic Times.

The policy is mostly to give a ‘due recognition’ to this industry.

The policy aims to frame a conducive ecosystem for software products The policy will take into consideration issues like to international tariffs, taxation and R&D and recommend remedies for these, as confirmed by two people who know about this government software policy.

In an interview with ET, on the condition of anonymity a person told "The first draft of policy in the form of a consultation paper is ready and will be circulated soon for industry consultation."

The same policy is a long time demand from the tech and software industries. 

Former CEO of Yahoo India R&D and cofounder of iSPIRT Sharad Sharma said, "The value nowadays lies in products, not services." In this regard, Sharma made mention of Microsoft as an example.

In 2015, the Indian software industry shot up a 26.6pct annual growth. 80pct of this has been contributed by companies operating in the global market.

Cofounder of i-flex, NRK Raman considers stout efforts and perseverance by software entrepreneurs as key to success of the Indian software industry. He said, "We are seeing huge number of product companies come up in the last 12-18 months, now is the time for the government to get its act together," said Raman, who has invested in half a dozen tech companies himself.

Though government policy for electronics and information technology is already in place, this will be the first policy issues for software products.

Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president at Nasscom said "In a lot of government projects, departments are mainly procuring MNC products so the Indian software products need to be given a level-playing field." 

Gupta expects the government policy to address issues related to working capital, venture capital funding, double taxation and recurring payments.

She adds, "The consultation paper which has been floated is at a very initial stage right now and we hope we can address some or all of these issues."

 

READ ALSO: Google Maps: Offline Navigation for iOS

Cyber Attacks Rise On Apple Devices: Symantec