[Fsf-friends] Re: BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"

[cvr3 at antispam]

More  proprietary requirements.
And this is being done by the Union Minister of Company Affairs.
Now the torturing reality is that without proprietary softwares
you can not register a company in India. This proves the Govt.
has to do a lot to secure their citizens.
Mail server is only part of it.

I do not know whether President India is aware of what his council of
Ministers are doing.

http://www.mca.gov.in/
There is link called "Download Prerequisite Software for eFiling"

> Dear Sir,
> I had been monitoring the changeover plans of sancharnet email services to
> bsnl.in ever since it was announced publicly by your MD. From this
> request,
> it appears that your department is not fully aware of the implications for
> national security that such a migration poses. I had an initial debate
> when
> I had announced on the FSF-Friends mailing lists that bsnl.in mail server
> is
> on Microsoft platform with some learned professors arguing that my
> methodology to arrive at the conclusion were not technically correct. It
> was
> then I got a copy of your presentation, which clarified the issues to
> members in the Free Software Foundation's mailing list.
>
> I hope you would appreciate that the President of India had earlier said
> that "Its unfortunate that we Indians believe in proprietary solutions. A
> small shift in business solutions to proprietary can have devastating
> effects on our society.." A large number of newspapers had carried the
> story. One such article is here
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=47799819
>
> If you watch carefully, the article continues  "..He said that during a
> discussion with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the Rashtrapati Bhavan a few
> months ago, he had discussed the issue of software security and the need
> to
> look for open source codes. 'Our discussions became difficult since our
> views were different,' Kalam said. ..".
>
> This is precisely our sore point - that a public sector undertaking has
> been
> given a different view about "security" by Microsoft and that you are
> (innocently, I should now say) executing the project, which goes against
> "national security" - going by President's own words. A service is never
> secure, unless the freedom to *examine* or *amend* the code is with us (in
> this case, with BSNL). You would also appreciate that as per IT Act 2000,
> there cannot be public systems that have malignant code inside - which
> means
> every public system will qualify only if this certification is there. IT
> Act
> says that such systems should not cause leakage of sensitive information
> relating to "privileges of parliament, trade, or other sensitive
> information" - which can only be ensured if public systems are *only* on
> Free Software. By taking what is legally now considered as a retrograde
> step, BSNL is now qualifying to be prosecuted under the aforementioned
> act.
>
> Its my sincere hope that you would do your best to redo the damage that
> will
> be caused to the nation by
> (1) taking its premier email services away from Microsoft and have it
> commissioned on Free Software platforms,
> (2) initiating an audit in every operational department under your control
> to ensure that proprietary solutions are phased out, and
> (3) thus, showing the world that BSNL cares for the concerns of the
> citizens.
>
>
> Should you have any difficulty in technical aspects, we have a great bunch
> of techies here who would be at your call to render service which are
> ethical and just.
>
> Regards and best wishes,
> CK Raju
> On 3/9/07, G Srinivas <gsrinivas at bsnl.co.in> wrote:
>>
>>  Dear Raju,
>>
>> Can u please throw more light on your statement.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> G. SRINIVAS
>>
>> DGM(Dotsoft&Comp)
>>
>> HYDERABAD, BSNL
>>
>> 040 -23236153(O)
>>   ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* anilankv at gmail.com [mailto:anilankv at gmail.com] *On Behalf Of
>> *Anilkumar
>> K V
>> *Sent:* 06 March 2007 17:49
>> *To:* gsrinivas at bsnl.co.in
>> *Subject:* BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: *CK Raju, Thrissur* <ck.thrissur at gmail.com>
>>
>> Friends,
>>
>> The mail server at http://mail.bsnl.in has now been confirmed to be on
>> M$
>> platform. Here's the link.
>>
>> http://egovstandards.gov.in/states_repositories/andhra-pradesh/brainstroming_sessions/andhra-pradesh/network-information-security-standards/egsworkshopfile.2006-12-13.1596939909/at_download/file
>>
>> BSNL should find a prominent place now in our "Hall of Shame".
>>
>> And the person associate with this *project* is
>> G Srinivas ITS, DGM(Dotsoft & Computers), BSNL AP
>> Email : gsrinivas at bsnl.co.in
>>
>> What a terrible shame ???
>>
>> CK Raju
>>
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