A virtual roundtable discussion ‘Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government’ was organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to increase awareness about the usage of FOSS in governance and government functioning, and adoption of FOSS, MeitY on April 22, 2021.

On the occasion of 7-year anniversary of MyGov, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched #FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge to accelerate adoption of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Government and build Indian FOSS Ecosystem on July 26, 2021.

Through this challenge, various innovators, start-ups, working professionals, academics and students in India are invited to showcase their existing FOSS based innovations and/or build new, implementable, open-source product innovations in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) with possible applications for Govtech in Health, Education, Agriculture, Urban Governance etc. The winners of the Challenge will receive cash rewards and incubation support to scale their products for listing on Government e Market (GeM).

To promote this challenge further, the last date of participation and submission have been extended till 15 September, 2021. MeitY appeals to FOSS innovators to participate in large numbers to drive the FOSS revolution to its maximum potential.

RKJ/M