The Union Cabinet has recently in September 2012, approved the National
Policy on Information Technology 2012. The Policy aims to leverage Information & Communication Technology (ICT) to address the country's economic and
developmental challenges.
The thrust areas of the policy include:
1. To increase revenues of IT and ITES (Information Technology Enabled
Services) Industry from 100 Billion USD currently to 300 Billion USD by 2020
and expand exports from 69 Billion USD currently to 200 Billion USD by 2020.
2. To gain significant global market-share in emerging technologies and
Services.
3. To promote innovation and R&D in cutting edge technologies and
development of applications and solutions in areas like localization, location
based services, mobile value added services, Cloud Computing, Social Media
and Utility models.
4. To encourage adoption of ICTs in key economic and strategic sectors to
improve their competitiveness and productivity.
5. To provide fiscal benefits to SMEs and Startups for adoption of IT in value
creation.
6. To create a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower in ICT.
7. To make at least one individual in every household e-literate.
8. To provide for mandatory delivery of and affordable access to all public
services in electronic mode.
9. To enhance transparency, accountability, efficiency, reliability and
decentralization in Government and in particular, in delivery of public services.
10. To leverage ICT for key Social Sector initiatives like Education, Health,
Rural Development and Financial Services to promote equity and quality.
11. To make India the global hub for development of language technologies, to
encourage and facilitate development of content accessible in all Indian
languages and thereby help bridge the digital divide.
12. To enable access of content and ICT applications by differently-abled people
to foster inclusive development.
13. To leverage ICT for expanding the workforce and enabling life-long learning.
14. To strengthen the Regulatory and Security Framework for ensuring a
Secure and legally compliant Cyberspace ecosystem.
15. To adopt Open standards and promote open source and open technologies
The Policy has however not yet been notified in the Official Gazette.