National Software Policy!!! You may
have Your Say
The draft of the National Policy on
Software Products is likely to be put up for public consultation within days,
according to sources close to the concerned ministry. Earlier this month,
Minister of State for Electronics and IT PP Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that
the government has drawn up the draft National Policy on Software Products.
Expectations
from the policy to revamp the software product sector are high. The policy
should be aimed at making a conducive environment for the sector, said Ravi
Gururaj, who chairs the product council at Nasscom.
“While
many of the startup ecosystem challenges are being addressed, a policy should
specifically address startup needs of the IT sector -software products, cloud
solutions, etc. Specific infrastructure needs like evaluation infrastructure,
and sector focus such as IoT that DeitY is currently acting on could be
enhanced,“ said Gururaj.
One
of the main aims of the new policy is to help the software product industry
increase its contribution to the economy.
“The
government has drawn up the draft National Policy on Software Products with an
aim to strengthen the software products ecosystem in the country and to give
further impetus, so that software product sector contributes significantly in
terms of business and employment,“ the minister had said, in his written reply
to the Lok Sabha on August 10.
Citing
data from software think tank iSPIRT (Indian Software Products Industry Round
Table), Chaudhary said the revenue of software products industry in India at
present is $6.1 billion. Out of this, $1.9 billion comes from exports.
Among
the expectations from the policy is that of making the govern ment one of the
significant customers of software products.
“The
government has to become a market maker. The policy is also focused on making
the government buy software products rather than software projects,“ said
iSPIRT's Sharad Sharma.
However,
Gururaj said the government should not be constrained by diktats on what they
can procure.
The
third significant point of the policy would be to help in creating more
India-based software product companies instead of those domiciled abroad.
“The
whole Startup India action plan is supposed to lead to Indiacentric innovative
companies. The efforts of other departments should ideally supplement the
programme and target sector-specific needs. The holistic execution of all the
proposed programmes should ensure India is a very hospitable environment within
which to grow your product company and help stem any flight to foreign
jurisdictions,“ said Gururaj.
Most
importantly, the policy aims to introduce a definition of software products in
the government's lexicon, according to Sharma.
“Given
the way the industry has developed in India, it's not surpri sing that there is
no definition of software products in the government.Everything called
“software“ is actually “software services“. The policy aims to correct this
archaic situation.Only once this is corrected, can real work to address
innumerable problems related to taxation for software products can get
underway. This policy will give an impetus to streamline the taxation tangle
around all digital goods where software products are the biggest victim,“
Sharma said.
The
policy could shape India into a major SaaS leader.
Source | Economic Times | 23 August 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
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