Policy Tailwinds¶

If your institution is government-funded or government-aided, the following national policies are relevant. Private institutions may also find them useful as reference material when making the case to leadership.

Government of India Open Source Policy (2014): This policy mandates that all central government organisations adopt open source software as the preferred option for new applications and new versions of existing e-Governance systems.

National Education Policy 2020: NEP 2020 calls for open research to democratise research output and education practices at educational institutions through the concept of National Educational Technology Forum and National Research Foundation. The policy also calls for multidisciplinary and holistic education which aligns directly with the digital commons ideology.

Kerala KITE: Kerala's KITE program migrated over 2 lakh computers in 14,000 government schools to a custom Ubuntu-based Linux distribution. The estimated cost avoidance is Rs 3,000 crore as per their 2021-22 report. The program includes customised FOSS educational software built into the OS and aligned to the state curriculum. It is the most comprehensive state-level FOSS-in-education implementation in India and a practical reference for what institutional adoption looks like at scale.

For AICTE-affiliated institutions: AICTE encourages the use of open source software in their annual approval handbook. While the original list of open source software recommended by AICTE has been taken down or moved to a different location, several educational institutions have published the list on their websites as direction for their faculty to adopt open source software. Example: Government Polytechnic, Panchkula.