Open Source Software to aid digital democracy: IT Minister

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In a bid to boost Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) development in the country, the government has launched a contest ‘FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge’ for innovators, startups and tech companies. This contest would be run through MyGov platform that completed seven years of its launch on 26 July. To commemorate the contribution of MyGov in promoting participatory governance, an event was organised.

Acknowledging the huge potential of FOSS in India, Union Minister for IT, telecom and Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said that open source software is the key for digital democracy, which will make technology access easier for ordinary citizens.

“As the 75th Independence day is right around the corner, FOSS would aid digital democracy and enable people to have direct conversations with the government”, he said.

#FOSS4GOVInnovation Challenge

FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge would be conducted in five phases. The challenge calls upon FOSS innovators, technology entrepreneurs and Indian Startups to submit implementable open source product innovations in the fields of Health, Education, Urban Governance, Agriculture or any other field related to E-governance for public for two categories:

1. Customer relationship management (CRM) 2. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Rs 20 lakh cash prize

The top winning teams in each of the two categories (CRM and ERP) will receive Rs 20 lakh each; the second team will receive Rs 15 lakh each and the third team will receive Rs 10 lakh each as prize money from MeitYStartUp Hub. Omidyar network has volunteered to provide a special prize of Rs 5 lakh in each category for best citizen centric safegaurds.

Registration Link for the FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge are available on MyGov and MSH platform.

FOSS crucial for internet

More than 85% of India’s internet is running on FOSS, and a large 4G mobile base which recently crossed more than 598.11 million of which 96% of them access the digital world through open source based mobile operating systems, primarily android.

Some of India’s largest government projects including Aadhar, GSTN, DigiLocker and many other technology start-ups are built using FOSS.