Govt’s open-source code repository, OpenForge, has 10,328 users: Economic Survey

OpenForge, a central government-operated open-source code repository similar to Microsoft’s GitHub, has crossed 10,000 users on the platform, with 10,328 users and 2,205 projects on the platform at the moment. Highlighted in the 2023 Economic Survey, the Union Government highlighted the platform’s user base as part of how digital technologies are playing a growing role in India’s digital public infrastructure.

“The government is also cognizant of the need to improve the productivity of human capital. In order to promote open, collaborative software development of e-governance applications, a platform called OpenForge has been developed. Through OpenForge, the use of open-source software and sharing and reuse of e-governance-related source code is promoted. As on January 16, there are 10,328 users on the platform, with 2,205 projects,” the Economic Survey noted.

OpenForge was launched in March 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICeGOV). At the time, the Centre highlighted that the move was in line with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity)’s Policy On Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications, published in 2015.

The move was a part of the government’s initial Digital India plan rollout.

“By opening the source code, the government wants to encourage collaborative development between government departments, agencies and private organisations, citizens, and developers — to spur the creation of innovative e-governance applications and services,” a statement by Meity said at the time of rollout of the platform.

The 2023 Economic Survey also highlighted further open-source projects that have been promoted over the years, such as the National AI Portal.

The Survey stated that the Portal “has been developed with a view to strengthening the AI ecosystem in the country by pooling together and highlighting the latest developments happening in Central and State governments, industry, academia, non-government organisations (NGOs) and civil societies.”

As of January 16, the Survey noted that the National AI Portal had 1,724 articles, 829 news items, 276 videos 127 research reports and 120 government initiatives — “all related to AI”. The Portal was launched in May 2020, and is a joint initiative between Meity, National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).