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he Indian government has been making headlines in the open source world with its increased adoption of open source technologies. The government has realised that a switch to open source would result in the reduced cost and increased security. After specifying an open source policy and releasing BOSS Linux (Bharat Operating System Solutions), it’s all set to launch its own open source collaboration platform.

This development is inspired by DeitY’s new policy named Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications. To achieve this, the government felt the need for a comprehensive framework to archive source code.

When we think of collaborative coding and open source project sharing, the popular names that come to our mind are GitHub and SourceForge. Just like these platforms, the new platform will allow government bodies as well as the software developers to develop and share their code.

According to the sources, the team behind framework’s development is thinking of dividing the open source code collaboration platform into two segments. One part will be open exclusively to the government departments, another one will be available to all.

“While the policy is in place, it needs to be supported by appropriate technology infrastructure to create and grow a thriving open source community around Indian e-governance,” a source told Open Source For You.

A collaborative development platform will make sure that open source innovation is boosted both inside the government as well as outside it. This step will benefit the open source revolution in a big way. If the government software are open to the public, developers can work on them and report their vulnerabilities.

So, this step by the Indian government could be seen as one of the cornerstones in India’s open source story. fossBytes welcomes the Indian government’s decision to support open source and expects more in the future.

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