Thiruvananthapuram, May 22 (IANS): The central government's new policy which mandates the use of Open Source Software (OSS) for e-Governance applications will add strategic value to the "Digital India" drive, an expert said on Friday.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing director B. Ramani said: "With this new policy recommendation, India joins several other developed and developing countries. OSS provides numerous benefits such as strategic control, liberal licensing, cost-effectiveness, better security, robustness and compliance to open standards.

"The transition to OSS will save foreign exchange, provide employment to the local workforce and companies, and support innovation. In these ways, the new policy will add value to the 'Digital India' initiative of the centre."

He was speaking after inaugurating a joint consultation that was convened for the personnel of central government organisations in Kerala.

The new policy, released in March, makes it mandatory for all projects of the central government to use OSS as a preferred choice for all applications.