Govt announces Rs 2.3 cr support for developing indigenous video conferencing technology

The government on Monday announced support of up to Rs 2.3 crore for the development of indigenous video conferencing solutions through a competitive process.

As part of Innovation challenge for the development of a video conferencing solution under the Digital India initiative, the Ministry of Electronics and IT will select 10 entities or start-up in the first round and give them Rs 5 lakh each for developing the prototype of the product.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

In the second round, three entities will be selected for the development of the final product and given Rs 20 lakh each. "In order to provide initial market, the winning team with the best-judged solution will get a contract to deploy their solution for use by Government of India and State Government entities for a period of 4 years and will also be given Rs 1 crore in the first year and an additional 10 lakh per year for 3 years after the first year towards operations and maintenance of the solution for the Government," MyGov said in a statement.

All teams including the winning team shall be free to market the product to any entity outside union or state government organisations of India by hosting it in an environment other than that for the government, it said. "The end product will be an Indian Software Product at par with International and audio quality and should work in low and high network scenarios. The initiative is an attempt to promote Indian Software products as envisaged under the National Policy on Software Products," the statement said.