The Government on Wednesday formulated a 'Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India' that would encourage the formal adoption and use of Open Source Software (OSS) in Government organisations.

Currently most eGovernance solutions are developed using Closed Source Software (CSS), which is licensed under the exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. In that the users' right to make modifications, sharing, studying, redistribution or reverse engineering is limited. 

However, the Government wants all Government organisations to compare both OSS and CSS options with respect to capability, strategic control, scalability, security, lifetime costs, and support requirements, under the new policy, said the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY).

This policy would provide a framework for the rapid and effective adoption of OSS, ensure strategic control in eGovernance applications and systems, and reduce the total cost of ownership of projects. 

The policy, formulated by DeitY, will enable freedom of use and re-use of ICT assets along with availability of strong OSS community support, it said.

To achieve these objectives, the policy aims to establish a suitable mechanism for the available OSS that includes institutional mechanism, partnership with industry, academia and OSS community, it added.

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