[Fsf-friends] Karat Releases Tamil Free Software

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Karat Releases Tamil Free Software
People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Vol. XXIX
No. 47
November 20, 2005

Karat Releases Tamil Free Software

PRAKASH Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), formally released Tamil free
software and open source tools developed by Panacea  Dreamweavers Software
Private Limited, a Chennai-based company. The packages were received by Dr M
Anandakrishnan, former vice-chancellor of Anna University at a function in
Chennai on November 9.

Karat lauded the efforts of the company, stating that the packages and  open
source tools were a big stride forward in democratising IT, besides  making
the software available to small businessmen, self-help groups (SHGs) and
NGOs.

Presiding over the occasion, T K Rengarajan, CPI(M) central committee
member, said that launch of Tamil free software and open source tools  would
go a long way in bridging the digital divide.

Dr Anandakrishnan said that college students should be encouraged to
develop software using the source code that has been made available to  them
by Panacea Dreamweavers.

R Duraipandi, Director (Technology), Panacea Dreamweavers, spoke on the need
to develop free software for regional language computing and called upon
members of the developer community to take forward his company’s initiative
in other languages as well.

The guest of honour, Ms Vasanthi Devi, former vice-chancellor of Manonmaniam
Sundaranar University, commended the team led by Duraipandi on their
outstanding efforts. (INN)