9th June 1998

i) Government and the Societies at the Union and State government levels, would invite proposals from IT companies for development of applications of use to the public, especially in public services and public domain information retrieval. (Canada and Singapore have such bodies and programs). The selected applications would receive development funding (part grand and part loan to be paid back as royalty to the government) if the companies cannot fund the development by themselves.

ii) Financial incentives should be given to promote in-house R&D. Creation of Computer Software Products and Packages should get R&D Benefits under Section 35(2AB) of the Income

iii) Emerging Information Technology Initiatives for the 21st Century

•US, Japan & Europe initiatives analysed in terms of Government initiatives in pre-competitive R&D Programme abnormative action plan by Government of India and State Government.

•dentification, formalization and promotion of Technology initiatives, abinitio, which are niches for India, e.g. Indian language Interfaces, IT applications for Panchayat system, etc.)