[fosscomm] Public consultation on Draft National Policy on Information Technology 2011 released 7/10/11

[Guru गुरु]

The national policy has a single line on creating a free and open 
digital environment...
"6.7 To promote open standards and open technologies."

The draft Policy is available on the website of Department of 
Information Technology (www.mit.gov.in <http://www.mit.gov.in/>). 
Comments and feedback on the draft Policy are invited by Department of 
Information Technology. Members of FOSSCOMM could give feedback seeking 
greater emphasis on and support for open standards/FOSS. Also on issues 
such as cloud computing, Aadhar etc.

regards
Guru

http://www.mit.gov.in/content/public-consultation-2011
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=76498

Draft National Policy on Information Technology 2011 Released by Shri Sibal

Over Three Times Increase in Revenue from it and ITES Industry Envisaged
Revenue to Reach 300 Billion USD by 2020
Measures for India to Emerge as Hub for Language Technology Suggested

Shri Kapil Sibal, the Minister of Communications and Information 
Technology released the Draft National Policy on Information Technology, 
2011 here today. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sibal said that 
Information Technology is a key driver of an increasingly knowledge 
based global economy, and given its current global position in the IT 
and ITES sector, India is well positioned to enhance and leverage its 
existing IT capabilities for a leadership role. The Minister further 
said that the technology has transformational power, and it is a great 
leveler of opportunity within and across economies. With the right 
policies and investment in infrastructure, he said, we have the 
opportunity to strengthen and enhance our position as a global IT 
power-house. On the domestic front, use of IT in all sectors can 
transform our economy, enhance equity and help the nation to rapidly 
improve its development indices.

Shri Sibal highlighted that the draft National Policy on IT 2011 
envisages to increase revenues of IT and ITES Industry from 88 Billion 
USD at present to 300 Billion USD by 2020. In this context, he 
underlined the significant contribution of the IT Sector to the growth 
of Indian economy over last decade which registered a growth rate of 8 
per cent. Since, of a USD 88 Billion IT industry in 2010-11, 80 per cent 
of the revenues comes from exports,the  Policy proposes to encourage 
growth of indigenous demands and market. The proposed Policy also aims 
at formulating fiscal and other incentives to attract investment in this 
sector in Tier II and Tier III cities.

The Indian IT and ITES sector currently employs over 2.5 million skilled 
people and has been one of the major employment generators in the last 
two decades. The focus of the IT Policy is on deployment of ICT in all 
sectors of the economy and providing IT solutions to the world.  The 
National Policy on IT aims to strengthen and enhance India’s position as 
the Global IT hub and to use IT as an engine for rapid, inclusive and 
sustainable growth in the national economy.  The Policy aims to 
maximally leverage the power of ICT to help address the monumental 
economic and developmental challenges the country faces.

The thrust areas of the policy include to:
i.            Increase revenues of IT and ITES Industry from 88 Billion 
USD at present to 300 Billion USD by 2020.
ii.            Formulate fiscal and other policies to attract investment 
in IT Industry in Tier II & Tier III cities.
iii.            Promote innovation and R&D in cutting edge technologies 
and development of applications and solutions in areas like 
localization, location based services, mobile value added services, 
Cloud Computing, Social Media and Utility models.
iv.            Provide fiscal benefits to SMEs and startups in the key 
industrial sectors for adoption of IT in value creation
v.            Leverage Internet, Web and mobile technologies for 
developing new products, technologies and businesses.
vi.            Integrate Internet based and mobile based delivery of 
services onto a common platform to enable seamless, ubiquitous, secure 
and personalized delivery of government and non-government services 
throughout the country
vii.            Integrate Aadhaar, financial and location-based services 
into this integrated platform to foster an ecosystem for innovation in 
services
viii.            Create a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower 
in ICT.
ix.            Make at least one individual in every household e-literate.
x.            Extend the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and mandate 
provision of all Government services through Electronic mode within a 
fixed time frame by enactment of the Electronic Delivery of Services 
(EDS) Bill
xi.            Enhance transparency, accountability, efficiency, 
reliability and decentralization in Government and in particular, in 
delivery of public services.
xii.            Leverage ICT for key social sector initiatives like 
Education, Health, Rural Development and Financial Services to promote 
equity and quality.
xiii.            Make India global hub for development of language 
technologies to encourage and facilitate development of content 
accessible in all Indian languages and thereby help bridge the digital 
divide.
xiv.            Enable access of content and ICT applications by 
differently abled people to foster inclusive development.
xv.            Facilitate adoption of  ICTs in key economic and 
strategic sectors to improve their competitiveness and productivity.
xvi.            Strengthen the Regulatory and Security Framework for 
ensuring a Secure Cyberspace ecosystem.
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