Do you think that utilization of free and open source software can help in development of government applications effectively? Comment (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· In 2015, the Indian government announced a policy to encourage open source instead of proprietary technology for government applications.
· Free Open Source Software can actually create more trust between the government and citizens.
· FOSS communities can examine the open-source code for adherence to data privacy principles, help find bugs, and ensure transparency and accountability.
· Many solutions launched by the government including Digilocker, Diksha, Aarogya Setu, the Covid-19 vaccination platform CoWIN built on top of open-source digital platforms have benefited from valuable inputs provided by volunteer open-source developers.
· The case of FOSS, there appears to be an absence of one clear “owner”, which makes it harder to identify who is responsible.
Measures required
· The first step is to incentivise the uptake of FOSS in government. The government’s policy on the adoption of open-source software requires all tech suppliers to submit bids with open source options.
· Creating a repository of ready-to-use “GovTech-ised” building blocks, can help departments quickly identify and deploy FOSS solutions in their applications.
· FOSS innovations can be encouraged through “GovTech hackathons and challenges”, bringing together the open-source community to design solutions for specific problem statements identified by government departments.
