Indian software products industry to get its own national policy

The Indian software products industry, which has until now been in the shadow of the IT industry, could very well get its own deserved place soon. If reports are to be believed, Indian government is working on a national policy especially for software products.

The policy will be taking a comprehensive view of the software sector and would also try to fix some longstanding issues regarding international tariffs, taxation and R&D.

The policy would aim at providing the sector its due recognition that it has for long deserved, a government official involved in discussions over the initiative told ET.

The policy has been in demand for a long time, especially from the tech industry, which has accused policymakers that they show a step behavior for the software products segment.

As per estimates, Indian software product industry index grew by a good 26.6% annually in 2015, and 80% of this growth came from companies that are focused on global markets.

New companies like Druva, Freshdesk, Capillary, Team Indus (backed by Nandan Nilekani), Forus Health, Julia (an open-source language out of Bengaluru and the MIT) and car firm Savari are the torchbearers of this industry.

Department of Electronics and Information Technology has its policies for the IT sector and electronics, but it would be the first time that a policy document specifically on software products would be drafted.

Issues that software product companies face include dual taxes because of digital product downloads off the internet being treated as both products as well as services and overregulation, especially for recurring payments.

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