[Fsf-friends] A National Shame

[doxa at antispam]

Unfolding of the drama
==============

"September 28, 2006 -- Microsoft India today announced the winners of its first
“Microsoft E-governance awards”. The first of the annual awards set
up to recognize the most impactful E-governance applications in the country
received over 300 nominations and the winners include 20 E-governance
applications implemented across the country (the names of the winners are
attached in the addendum). The projects nominated include those developed by
the National Informatics Centre (NIC), State IT Departments, and Department of
Information Technology, Government of India in partnership with Microsoft..."

"Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India added, “E-governance is a
critical necessity for our country today. A strong E-governance infrastructure
enables an efficient and transparent governance mechanism providing a thrust to
the development indices of a country. We are very happy to be working with the
Indian governments on creating such applications.”.."

"As pioneers in the E-governance space in India, Microsoft has been working
closely with various departments of the Central and State Governments and
Public Sector organizations for the last 13 years. Currently Microsoft partners
with 14 state governments and there are nearly 150 e-governance applications
running on the Windows platform. Additionally Microsoft continues to create
benchmarks in local language computing and community outreach programs that
help facilitate affordable access to technology in rural areas for effective
delivery of E-governance service..."
Complete official document at 
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/3/6/03695790-07C9-4EF2-845E-F12092F6B65E/031006/EGovAwardsrelease.doc
(also available as cached google page - if M$ withdraws this document)
===========================

Surely this is an occasion of national shame to all of us, who work to propagate
values of freedom in an information society. It should also put to shame the
recommendations of  Knowledge Commission of India to Govt of India - because
already 14 states have already entered into partnership with Microsoft, some
for the last 13 years. Its also a shame to the Right to Information Act 2005,
where "preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information" has been
thrown to winds - because these are now guaranteed only if US State agrees -
refer Akbar Raj's case and the stunts followed by Kerala Police with Microsoft
HQs and US Security Department.

No longer can the Ministry of Local Self Governments in Kerala now deny that
Information Kerala Mission is outside this nefarious design of this proprietary
corporate. Even then which are the other 13 states ? What is NIC doing with
Microsoft ? What is Min of IT, Govt of India doing with Microsoft ?

Are all these happening with the consent of the citizens ?

Do we have a right to know ?

CK Raju
Thrissur

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