The Government of India yesterday cleared the approval of creating an INR 5000 fund to strengthen software firms in the country as part of its National Policy on Software Products.
The new policy was announced by Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a press conference which was being formulated since last three and a half years. The minister said that the government would offer a fund of INR 1,000 crore and the remaining amount will come from the industry.
The government is eyeing to form 10,000 startups in the software products space which will create employment for 6.5 million people. The government has also announced the rollout of a programme to bolster R&D and innovation in the industry will a budget allocation of INR 500 crore.
The government via its policy will support the upskilling of 1 million IT professionals and offer specialised training to 10,000 professionals to gear up for leadership roles.
“Silicon is starting to think. Planet-scale software products, infused with AI-learning from the internet and sensors, will transform the country. India needs to bring it’s A game and this policy is a significant recognition of this imperative,” said Lalitesh Katragadda, Fellow iSPIRT and CEO Indihood.
With this move, the government intends to reach a tenfold rise in the country’s share of the global software products market by the year 2022, touching $70-80 billion from the current $7.1 billion.
The government is looking at a cluster approach to improve the concentration of product firms in specific sectors, said Prasad.
