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Professors from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) recommended that open source software should be supported with greater institutional support of the government, such as ensuring that existing public procurement policies should be enforced. The report provides for a greater proliferation of free source code software (FOSS) and quotes examples from different parts of industry that rely on it.
Open source software, unlike proprietary software, is developed and modified by the programming community and is generally provided freely to other developers. Open source technologies are common for proprietary software because companies and digital systems are growing increasingly complex.
In fact, companies that work primarily on building digital tools and services tend to rely very strongly on Foss. “Our study suggests that for organizations we have studied, there is a clear preference for FOSS and dominates their technological magazine, although there may be other types of software that are used for specific cases of use,” the report said. “E-mail services and internally used applications are two categories in which we have noticed the use of proprietary software in an otherwise oriented FOSS organization.”
The study “Specifically recommends changes in the instructions for awarding public procurement, which makes the purchase of Foss’s solutions to the norm,” says and “transmitting information and communication technologies (ICT) education in schools using FOSS”.
Electronic management systems
In 2015, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (now the Ministry) issued a framework for accepting open source code software in electronic management systems, a document that remains in force. However, orders remain chamfered towards the proprietary platforms. During the discussion after the start of the report by economist Renuk Sane, the officials tended to choose this route because it would be easier to assign responsibility if a cyber incident occurred.
The exception to this frame was also carved for sellers to prevent the use of fossu if they were justified. “Since the publication of this framework ten years ago, the use of Foss in industry has been exponentially and reliable Foss -based solutions available for almost every type of software requirement,” the study said. “It is therefore recommended that the instructions be modified so that the FOSS contracts are mandatory when they are available, and software with a closed source should be allowed for specialized or exceptional cases where FOSS alternatives are not available.”
“We recommend that the government provide grants to support contributions to specific FOSS projects. They can have various forms such as direct financing of universities. It is worth noting that popular football projects such as BSD Unix and PostgreSQL database have been developed at universities.”
The study was led by ARUL George Scaria, co -founder of the Center for Research and Defense of intellectual property at NLSIU. SuryAprakash Mishhra, professor of social sciences in NLSIU; Other authors of the study were Shubham Shinde, a research worker in the field of technology policy and Rashi Singhal, an academic worker in Nlsio.
Published – July 11, 2025 17:36
