The website of Department of Electronics and Information Technology of India (which uses the lovely acronym DEITY) stated that the “Government of India shall endeavour to adopt Open Source Software in all e-Governance systems implemented by various Government organizations, as a preferred option in comparison to Closed Source Software.”
“All Government Organizations, while implementing e-Governance applications and systems must include a specific requirement in Request for Proposal (RFP) for all suppliers to consider open source software (OSS) along with closed source software while responding. Suppliers shall provide justification for exclusion of OSS in their response….”
In stating a preference for open source software, the government is following the lead of the state of Kerala (a state in southern India), which has long promoted the adoption of open source.
