[Fsf-friends] Microsoft wants to liberate Panchayati Raj System

Mani A a.mani.cms at gmail.com
Thu Sep 18 20:18:24 IST 2008


On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 9:31 AM, CK Raju <ck.thrissur at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 9:29 PM, Mani A <a.mani.cms at gmail.com> wrote:
>> M$ gets its dirty work done through partners like DRISHTI. So their
>> plan cannot be gauged without taking the rest into consideration.
>
> Its a treat to watch the novel way through which M$ attempts to sneak
> in and how it influences the machinery. I do have only secondary
> sources now. But these are also heavy entertainers - so will keep it
> with me till I get more finer prints.
> Dhristhi, as you said is a fine conduit, there's also a centre for
> smart-governance at Hyd, and the usual apparatus at South Block. The
> most funniest thing however is seeing the ideologies of elected
> representatives falling like a pack-of-cards, even in Writers'
> Buildings.


As far as IT policy framing department in Writers Building is
concerned, the main issue they see apart from the conditionalities
imposed by MORD and others is the lack of Linux support and manpower.
The IT minister Prof Debesh Das and some of his friends in the
academia think that is so. Though he seems to understand some of the
benefits of open source, he maintains a strange "neutral" position.
Apparently, only the IT-savvy section of the party in power
understands FOSS.

So along with Intel they have massive Linux in Schools programme in
place. They have deployed Linux systems on a large-scale in particular
districts, in academia and higher level administration units. The
latter is often accelerated by the enthusiasm of particular
individuals within the concerned organizaton. There is the open source
center of excellence and improvements for FOSS in the academic arena.

But as far as IT for administration of Panchayats is concerned, it is
still not clear as to whether the CDAC developed JAVA based s/w and
GPMS were put on M$ or Linux or Unix systems and in what number.
Networking is typically implemented by organizations like BSNL, IBM
and others


Best

A. Mani





-- 
A. Mani
Member, Cal. Math. Soc


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