[Fsf-friends] Question in Indian parliament

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Below is the text of a question raised in the Indian parliament:

Government of India * Ministry of Communications and Information 
Technology * Departemnt of Information Technology * Rajya Sabha unstarred 
question No 976 * To be answered on 11-12-2003

Promotion of Free/Libre and Open Source Software

Will the Minister of Comunications & Information Technology be pleased to 
state:-

(a) what steps have been taken since the announcement of the Linux India 
Initiative by Government on the issue of promoting free/libre and open 
source software within the country; 

(b) the level of usage of FLOSS products in Government and semi-Government 
organisations; and

(c) whether the research benefits of publicly-funded computing 
institutions would be made sharable to all, by placing the same under the 
General Public Licence (GPL) or similar licences that do not restrict 
sharing of knowledge due to copyright restrictions?

ANSWER

Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology (SU 
Thirunavukkarasar)

(a): Two more consultative meetings have been held since then for in-depth 
discussion on projects and policy positions to be taken -- one with the 
Government and associated agencies and another with NGOs/Civil Society. 
Various related initiatives, as planned, under Linux India Initiative 
exercise are also being pursued.

(b): They are growing. 

(c): Research benefits of publicly funded computing institutions are being 
shared wherever appropriate. For instance, Centre for Development of 
Advanced Computing (C-DAC) had added components relating to a number of 
Indian languages for Linux available under General Public Licence (GPL) in 
September, 2003. Similarly, open office solutions have been provided for 
Indian languages under GPL developed by C-DAC, CollabCAD software 
developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) package has also been put 
in a limited sharing mode within certain agencies of Government. C-DAC has 
also put its Indian fonts in public domain. Wherever appropriate, software 
developed under public funded efforts are being shared under GPL or 
similar licenses that do not restrict the sharing of knowledge due to 
copyright restrictions ****

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