In News:

• The Union Cabinet approved the National Policy on Software Products 2019, which would help in formulating schemes, projects and measures to develop the software industry.

Explained:

• The policy aims to adopt a shift in strategy so that IT products also contribute equitably and significantly to the industry along with IT services.
• The government said that initially an outlay of Rs. 1,500 crores are being planned for various schemes under in policy in the next seven years.
• Further, the policy proposes to create a Rs. 5,000-crore fund with industry participation to promote emerging technology such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data and robotics. Of this, government contribution will be Rs. 1,000 crores.
• Software Product Development Fund’ will participate in venture funds having objectives aligned to this policy and so can leverage private investments targeted to promote software product ecosystem
  The SPDF will be financially managed by a professional financial institution.
• Presently, total revenue of IT-ITeS industry in India is pegged at about $168 billion (including e-commerce), with revenue of about $7.1 billion from software product industry, of which $2.3 billion is from exports.
• Further, the Policy aims to align with other Government initiatives such as Start-up India, make in India and Digital India, Skill India etc so as to create Indian Software products Industry of USD ~70-80 billion with direct & indirect employment of ~3.5 million by 2025.

The Policy has the following five Missions:

• To promote the creation of a sustainable Indian software product industry, driven by intellectual property (IP), leading to a ten-fold increase in India share of the Global Software product market by 2025.
• To nurture 10,000 technology startups in software product industry, including 1000 such technology startups in Tier-II and Tier-III towns & cities and generating direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million people by 2025.
• To create a talent pool for software product industry through
  1. Up-skilling of 1,000,000 IT professionals,
  2. Motivating 100,000 school and college students and
  3. Generating 10,000 specialized professionals that can provide leadership.
• To build a cluster-based innovation driven ecosystem by developing 20 sectoral and strategically located software product development clusters having integrated ICT infrastructure, marketing, incubation, R&D/testbeds and mentoring support.
• In order to evolve and monitor scheme & programmes for the implementation of this policy, National Software Products Mission will be set up with participation from Government, Academia and Industry.