MeitY announces #FOSS4GOV, Innovation Challenge to boost adoption of Free & Open Source Software

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced an Innovation Challenge #FOSS4GOV to accelerate the adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government.

• It calls on FOSS innovators, technology entrepreneurs and Indian Startups to submit open source product innovations in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) & ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
• The innovations will be applied in Govtech in the areas of Health, Education, Agriculture, Urban Governance.

Key Points

• India is well positioned to become a hub for FOSS innovation. Around 96% of Indian users access the digital world through open-source based mobile operating systems (primarily android).
• India’s largest-government projects (including Aadhaar, UPI) and many other technology start-ups have been built using FOSS.
• India had issued a Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software in 2015.

Virtual Roundtable Discussion

• MeitY in collaboration with Omidyar Network India organized a virtual roundtable discussion, “Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government” to increase awareness about the usage of FOSS in governance and Government functioning and adoption.

Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS)

• FOSS is free software & open-source software i.e. anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way.
• The source codes are openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.
• India’s COVID-19 contact tracing app ‘Aarogya Setu’ is an Open Source Software.

Recent Related News:

i.December 24, 2020, MoHFW & MeitY announced a Grand Challenge for the Strengthening of  “CoWIN” –  COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN).

About Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY)

Union Minister – Ravi Shankar Prasad (Lok Sabha – Patna Sahib, Bihar)
Minister of State – Sanjay Dhotre (Lok Sabha – Akola, Maharashtra)