Economic Impact of Open Standard Software: An Indian Perspective

1. Economic Impact of Open Standard Software: An Indian Perspective Prof. Rajanish Dass IIM, Ahmedabad rajanish@iimahd.ernet.in

2. Impacts • Better options • Cutting out ‘vendor lock-in’ • Greater choice among vendor selection • Promise for supporting innovation • Low cost of switching

3. Economic Advantage • In case of perfect competition, market determines the price • Local innovations can be supported at low cost • Better sustaining capability due to presence of many players

4. Economic Advantage • Competition will also determine that enhanced products reaches customer in right time and not the other way round • One bold step towards citizen centric policies • Boon for nurturing ICT enabled economy

5. Global Scenario • Governments across the globe are giving serious considerations • Number of nations across the globe are planning for adapting to ODF • A number of other governments have started providing active support to usage by encouraging end-users

6. Tangible Economic Benefits : India • Adoption of ODF & Open Office by Govt. of NCT Delhi • Adoption of ODF & Open Office by the Election Commission of India

7. Gov. of NCT Delhi • Usage of IT across departments was going up • In 2004 total IT related procurement against 52 orders was Rs. 73.5 Lakhs • In 2005 total IT related procurement against 117 orders was Rs. 352 Lakhs • Approx 379% increase in IT procurement

8. Cost Implications • 78% of the total software purchase was for buying licensed Office suites

9. Circular by IT Secretary • On 30-Nov-05 Secretary (IT), Delhi issued a circular to encourage use of OpenOffice • Prohibited purchase of licensed Office suite across all departments, even on demand • Acted as the enabler for managing this change by asking clarifications to be directed to DoIT • Main reason for taking this decision was cost-cutting

10. Other Initiatives • State Judiciary systems are based on Open Standards up to district level courts • HMIS for 31 hospitals to use Open Standards • Super speciality hospital Institute of Liver and Biliary Services (with a budget of Rs. 3.5 billion) will use Open Standards

11. Savings for HMIS for Hospitals

12. Savings from Licensing Fees

13. Total Savings • Total Savings: • Savings from using Linux: Rs. 3.5 Cr • Savings from Licensing fees: Rs. 24 Cr • Total Savings: Rs 28 Cr (Approx) • Add to this the cost of a lower downtime + freedom from vendor lock-in and enabling migration+ future upgrades

14. Election Commission of India • Spread across the national geography of India • Has adopted Open Source and Open Office • Has also opened up its in-house databases and software developed • Train the trainer approach in August 2006 followed by a circular • Distributed across India 4120 CDs containing ODF, Open Source Software and Freewares

15. Election Commission of India • Number of Computers to be impacted when Open software gets accepted in all nodes of EC : at least 10,000 – 12,000 • Ballpark Savings (in tune with previous slide of NCT Delhi): Rs. 280 – 336 Cr. • But both of the departments are facing challenges in execution of these decisions

16. Challenges • Lack of trained manpower • Lack of support for training • Cost of Training and Support • Less awareness among end-users • Inertia to change • Bottlenecks in ensuring and monitoring change

17. Road Ahead • Promoters must remove the elitist tag from Open Source and ODF • Walk an extra mile for non-technical end-users • Create User groups and enable them to spread the light • …And its all about opening up…having an open mind and an open view

18. Thanks!