ET BureauNEW DELHI: Industry has largely welcomed the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s (MeitY) draft policy for software products, which is open for consultation from the sector and other stakeholders until December 9. The policy aims to promote creation of a sustainable software product industry, which is largely being driven by the startup sector. It also aims to generate direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million through creation of 10,000 technology startups developing products.
“Having demonstrated the success of India’s product ability, we firmly believe, India just needs a targeted policy to succeed in product arena. Most importantly, the policy should be able to remove frictions in trade of software products in domestic market. ‘Software products’ need a recognition at par with other products or goods,” said Bharat Goenka, founder, Tally Solutions, which is one of the few established software product companies in India.
The policy covers issues ranging from funding, stock options, level playing ground in taxation, trade promotion, research and development.
“India needs to leapfrog ahead of the world, the intended policy will greatly enhance focus on Indian software products in the world and help in ease of doing business, trade promotions and simplifying government procurement. iSPIRT is very thankful for MeitY’s recognition of software product industry,” said Nakul Saxena, fellow at software product think tank iSPIRT.
The policy has been in the works for some time, and will likely help ease some issues for the industry. Among steps to improve access to the domestic market, the policy also suggests promotion of software products in sectors such as smart cities, healthcare, smart agriculture, e-learning and so on.
It further suggests promoting “usage of Indian software product industry in strategic sectors like defense, atomic energy, space, railways, telecommunication, power and healthcare etc”.
“The policy is broad, well structured and thought through. It focuses not just on the ease of doing business, but also talks about R&D, market access, government procurement. Those are the added values that can be provided today, because some of ease of doing business will get covered with the Startup India policy,” said Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President at the software services industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies.
While the larger intent of the draft policy was appreciated by the industry, some doubts still remain. “The challenge lies in how this gets implemented,” said an industry source who did not wish to be named. “It is important to think of implementation – apart from the policy, they should come up with an action plan- year by year,” the source added.
“Having demonstrated the success of India’s product ability, we firmly believe, India just needs a targeted policy to succeed in product arena. Most importantly, the policy should be able to remove frictions in trade of software products in domestic market. ‘Software products’ need a recognition at par with other products or goods,” said Bharat Goenka, founder, Tally Solutions, which is one of the few established software product companies in India.
Vishnu Dusad, CEO, Nucleus Software Exports , said the policy will provide a boost to the Indian software product industry, the same way as Software Technology Parks of India(STPI) policy helped the software services industry for its initial two decades.
The policy covers issues ranging from funding, stock options, level playing ground in taxation, trade promotion, research and development.
“India needs to leapfrog ahead of the world, the intended policy will greatly enhance focus on Indian software products in the world and help in ease of doing business, trade promotions and simplifying government procurement. iSPIRT is very thankful for MeitY’s recognition of software product industry,” said Nakul Saxena, fellow at software product think tank iSPIRT.
The policy has been in the works for some time, and will likely help ease some issues for the industry. Among steps to improve access to the domestic market, the policy also suggests promotion of software products in sectors such as smart cities, healthcare, smart agriculture, e-learning and so on.
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It further suggests promoting “usage of Indian software product industry in strategic sectors like defense, atomic energy, space, railways, telecommunication, power and healthcare etc”.
“The policy is broad, well structured and thought through. It focuses not just on the ease of doing business, but also talks about R&D, market access, government procurement. Those are the added values that can be provided today, because some of ease of doing business will get covered with the Startup India policy,” said Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President at the software services industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies.
While the larger intent of the draft policy was appreciated by the industry, some doubts still remain. “The challenge lies in how this gets implemented,” said an industry source who did not wish to be named. “It is important to think of implementation – apart from the policy, they should come up with an action plan- year by year,” the source added.
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