Personal highlights
The Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) philosophy adopted by Kerala and promoted under the leadership of the various knowledge societies/communities including IT@School programme (now Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), and later by International Centre for Free and Open Software (ICFOSS) has resulted in the development of a vibrant FOSS community and widespread adoption of open-source software in critical applications
The State later pursued innovative initiatives such as statewide high-speed giga fiber infrastructure, Kerala Fiber Optic Network (K-Fon Project) which envisions providing high-quality bandwidth connectivity to over 30,000 Government offices and commercial connections to households. The scheme will provide subsidized / free internet connectivity to about 2 million households in the near future realising the State’s declared policy of making the Internet a basic right for every Citizen. KFON will form a key enabler in the next stage of growth of IT in the State by ensuring competition amongst various ISPs and ensuring good internet connection to the Citizens at reasonable costs.
A statewide training infrastructure- Skill Delivery Platform Kerala (SDPK) covering over 100 technical institutions – helps in developing talent in emerging areas of technology with the support of KSITIL & ICT Academy Kerala, a public-private partnership in IT capacity building.
Kerala has been declared as the 1st State to be completely Digital in Education, with over 4.5 Lakh ICT equipment deployed to 16000 schools, under the KITE programme. The Little KITES IT Clubs operational in over 2000 schools are the largest ICT network of students in the Country and has benefitted over 3.75 Lakh students till now. The Little KITES students train their counterparts and to the public as well. KITE VICTERS educational channel which is operational 24/7 was the single source for education for over 4.5 million students during the Covid-19 pandemic and it is a unique model in the State.
2.5 Policy Objectives
16. To encourage community initiatives in the promotion of Free and Open Source software and
hardware
26. To transform Higher Education sector as a hub for FOSS, as a continuation to the similar
activities in school education.
3 Chapter III: e-Governance and Smart Governance
3.1 Introduction
As per IT Policy 2017, the vision of the Government was to establish best-in-class architectural governance, processes and practices with optimal utilization of ICT infrastructure and applications to offer ONE GOVERNMENT experience to all. Major e-governance applications have evolved in silos, organically fueled by the internal push to roll out electronic services to its Citizens resulting in multivendor engagements leading to departments adopting different standards, technologies, architecture and methodologies for delivering e-services. Lack of a Coherent approach, lack of standards and interoperability has become a major stumbling block in achieving the “One Government” vision. Hence it is of paramount importance to set standards/and architectural framework for digital services in the state. Once the framework is set, all further development of apps is to conform to this standard.
The current regime of data management does not enable open sharing of government owned data with other arms of the Government, nor does it expect proactive disclosure of sharable data available with data owners. Such regimes could lead to duplication of efforts and loss of efficiency in planning of activities focused on State development. Efficient sharing of data among data owners and inter and intra-governmental agencies and with public calls for data standards and interoperable systems. Hence, Kerala State Data Policy aims to provide an enabling provision and platform for providing proactive and open access to the data available with various departments/organizations of the Government of Kerala
The Kubernetes-based container platform will be implemented at state data centres as part of modernizing the legacy applications using microservices architecture.
Over the past few years, most of the e-governance applications have been migrated to the cloud. All future e-governance applications must be designed to be platform-independent and accessible to all. Choosing FOSS operating systems and applications can significantly reduce capital and recurring costs for the Government. The policy promotes FOSS technologies for the development and deployment of all e-governance applications. All computers and peripherals being procured in future should be compatible with FOSS. All government departments should encourage the use of FOSS tools on their computers. Research and development institutions as well as higher education institutions are encouraged to explore the possibility of replacing proprietary tools with FOSS alternatives.
5.3.2 Communities
KSUM shall work with the other stake holders of the IT/Industries department to create founder,
maker and opensource communities which will drive an innovation and entrepreneurship
ecosystem in the state of Kerala.
5.3.3.3 Prototyping Labs
…
KSUM will further enhance this digital fabrication infrastructure and create a distributed
prototyping network in the State. To enable this, special focus will be put on Machine Making
projects in Super Fablab to create affordable open-source fabrication machines that can be made
and deployed across the state. These new labs will add to the existing network of Mini Fab Labs
and democratise access to tools for rapid prototyping. KSUM will also create a Design Centre of
Excellence which will provide product design services to startups and also run programs to impart
design skills and provide software and hardware facilities to innovators in the State.
6.3 International Centre for Free and Open-Source Software
ICFOSS is a specialized COE established by ITD in 2009 to evangelize and promote the adoption
of Free and Open Software in the State. IT Policy 2023 envisages transforming ICFOSS as an
international thought leader in the responsible use of new technologies. Even though most of
the technologies that drive the digital revolution are democratized and is easily accessible, the
advanced developments using them still require huge computational resources. ICFOSS will strive
to address this by creating low-cost solutions using open-source hardware and software. In
addition to such developmental efforts, the IT Policy 2023 envisages the following measures to
strengthen the FOSS community in the State through ICFOSS
- Special support to develop talent using FOSS technologies in new technology domains like
AI, Data Analytics, Blockchain, Metaverse etc.- ICFOSS will create a mission to promote the adoption of FOSS software in all scientific
computations in educational institutions. Replacement of proprietary software like
AutoCAD, MATLAB, ANSYS, Cadence etc. used in colleges with open-source equivalents
will be a priority- Support will be provided to ICFOSS to replace proprietary High value (such as ERP, High-
value scientific software, graphics software) software used in government applications to
reduce the public spending on software procurement by at least 30% during the next 5
years. This includes the adoption of FOSS-based ERP, file flow systems, advanced
computing systems, specialised software etc. ICFOSS will develop programs to develop
talent to drive this transformation- The FOSS hardware Centre of ICFOSS will be developed as an International Centre of
Excellence on open hardware.
6.4 ICT Academy Kerala
ICT Academy Kerala (ICTAK), an institution set up through public-private participation is involved
in skill training in various technology domains. IT Policy 2023 envisages to enhance the operation
of ICT Academy during the next 5 years to drive the knowledge revolution in the state. To
strengthen ICT Academy, the following policy support will be provided.
- ICTAK will be provided with training infrastructure to train 1 million people in the next 5
years in various digital technologies so as to create a strong ecosystem of talent from
Kerala.- ICTAK will synergise the training efforts of various agencies in the State in IT and related
areas- ICTAK will strengthen the Skill Delivery Platform of Kerala to expand the same to at least
100 more institutions in the next 5 years.- Support will be provided to ICTAK to create programs to retain the talent within IT
industries to scale up their growth- Through the Technopark-facilitated IGNITE Program, ICTAK & IT Parks shall support the
onboarding of interns for Industry; 5K of Internship fee will be contributed by the Kerala
government- In association with Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission, ICTAK will provide placement
assistance support to IT companies in the State, thereby reducing the talent onboarding
time for Companies
6.5 Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE)
…
As part of IT Policy 2023, the following activities are proposed by KITE.
- To promote Digital education in tune with the new era by developing new ICT text books for
Classes 1 to 10, which will include new-age technologies such as Cyber Safety and Digital
Media Literacy.- To impart specialised training to 25 Lakh students in next 5 years in areas such as Robotics,
IoT and AI through 60,000 Little KITES IT members through peer-group learning.- To transform Higher Education sector as a hub for FOSS, as a continuation to the similar
activities in school education