Reclaiming Digital Capital: Building India’s Global Software Commons

Each year, institutions and funding bodies invest heavily in analytical and simulation tools that too often remain confined to a narrow circle of users. The result is duplication, isolation, and a silent erosion of digital capital. What should serve as a shared research backbone instead becomes an isolated expense. The real casualty is not money-it is collaboration.

The Missing Piece in the Digital Economy

Scientific software is a national asset, a form of intellectual infrastructure as vital as instruments or data networks. When licenses are left idle or repeatedly purchased, it weakens national productivity. Universities unknowingly buy tools that already exist nearby; granting agencies lack data to evaluate renewals; philanthropies cannot track the long-term impact of their contributions. Meanwhile, startups and small industries remain cut off from computational tools that already exist within the academic system.

In an age where competitiveness depends on digital knowledge, this fragmentation reduces the country’s scientific agility.

A Vision for the National Software Commons

To bridge this gap, I-STEM proposes a National Software Statistics Portal (NSSP)-a live, evolving registry of licensed and open-source software used across India’s research ecosystem. The idea is simple but transformative: treat software not as a private possession but as a shared digital resource.

The Portal will allow authenticated researchers, students, and enterprises to locate where specific tools are available and to connect directly with custodians. Geography, travel, or institutional walls would no longer determine access.

Core Missions of the Portal

1. Transparency: Build a verified national inventory of software acquired through public and private investments.

2. Access: Enable responsible, policy-compliant sharing across institutions and, where permitted, across borders.

3. Optimization: Prevent redundant purchases through pooled renewals and collective procurement.

4. Collaboration: Connect researchers, developers, and innovators who can co-create using existing digital tools.

5. Revenue Pathways: Allow institutions to earn nominal, rule-based service revenue when providing supervised access.

Phase I - Mapping the Invisible

The first step is diagnostic: to make the invisible visible.

• Compile a national directory of licensed and open-source software.
• Tag each entry with its discipline, license validity, and permissible use.
• Identify points of contact at each host institution.
• Generate audit-ready reports for ministries, councils, and funding agencies.

Such mapping will expose idle licenses that can be shared or re-deployed-especially across engineering, life-science, and computational research clusters.

Phase II - From National Grid to Global Connect

Once mapped, the NSSP can evolve into a globally linked Software Commons.

• Analytics Dashboard: Monitor real-time utilization and idle capacity.
• AI-Assisted Optimization (human-supervised): Identify sharing or renewal clusters across institutions.
• Federated Global Gateway: Allow approved international partners to access licensed software securely.
• Micro-Service Model: Let institutions offer short-term, rule-based access for remote users worldwide-no installations, only authorization.

Through this shift, India moves from license ownership to license leverage-a digital equivalent of shared laboratories.

Why It Matters

Fiscal Efficiency: Even a modest 20 percent optimization in software spending could free hundreds of crores for frontier research-AI, quantum computing, or bioinformatics.
Equal Access: Smaller colleges gain entry to advanced analytical tools through ethical sharing, bridging India’s research divide.
Institutional Growth: Hosting institutes gain visibility, legitimacy, and potential micro-revenues while strengthening ties with industry and international collaborators.
Cross-Border Collaboration: Foreign universities and R&D firms could work securely within Indian digital environments, fostering genuine global cooperation.

Ethics, Autonomy, and Compliance

Every participating institution retains full control over its assets. Sharing remains conditional upon license terms and internal policy. I-STEM’s role is governance-providing validation, audit trails, and transparent frameworks that protect both license holders and collaborators.

Aligning with National and Global Goals

The initiative dovetails with India’s larger missions:

• The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) framework for knowledge sharing.
• Viksit Bharat 2047 and Atmanirbhar Bharat goals for innovation self-reliance.
• UN SDG 9 on industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
• Global Open Science Partnerships that value interoperability and ethical data use.

By integrating these, the NSSP turns disconnected software silos into a collective intelligence platform-India’s contribution to the global research commons.

Turning Software into Sovereignty

Every dormant license hides unused potential; every shared license multiplies national value. The National Software Statistics Portal is more than an efficiency reform-it represents a new philosophy of digital stewardship: viewing software as renewable intellectual capital.

When researchers in Delhi, Coimbatore, or Heidelberg work simultaneously on Indian-licensed platforms, India transitions from being a consumer of technology to a custodian of global access.

That is the essence of research sovereignty-open, ethical, and globally connected.

-By Dr. Harilal Bhaskar is the Chief Operating Officer and National Coordinator of I-STEM (Indian Science, Technology, and Engineering facilities Map), a flagship national initiative under the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (P.S.A.) to the Government of India.

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