WELCOME TO OPEN SOURCE SUMMIT 2019...

The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has already said that open source adoption was necessary to support the government's goal to transform India into a "digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy". It has added that the country had always advocated the use of open standards and open source technologies in the public sector. The Indian government spends significant amount of money per year on software licences and maintenance. The Government is adopting this technology as it offers a scalable and robust platform which in turn provides the best possible outcome. Moreover, the most important reason behind its swift adoption is freedom of choice.

The Government of India has encouraged the adoption of this technology in the Digital India initiative and this has further encouraged the CIOs of enterprises and other government organizations to make a move towards Open Source technology. The rise of digital transformation in India has pushed the adoption of Open Source both by enterprises and government. According to a research, the Open Source Services market will be worth more than $30 billion by 2022. Open Source platform offers cost efficiency, scalability, innovation, rapid deployment, security and much more so it is the first choice for Government of India to leverage the digital transformation initiative which is presently going on in the country.

Given the scale of that spending, it's understandable that India, like other administrations around the world, has considered open source software and open software standards as a way of saving money.

But more than just seeing the move to open source as a cost-effective alternative, Is it also a means of speeding up innovation in the public sector?