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

[Anivar Aravind]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 10:08 AM, CK Raju <ck.thrissur at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 10:53 PM, Indranil Das Gupta
>> The fact is Mr. Chakraborty is a Project Co-ordinator / IT Officer
>> with the Panchayat & Rural Development (P&RD) Dept, Govt of WB. He
> ....
>> So, has Mr. Chakraborty been empowered as spokesperson from P&RD? Its
>
> ========
> Disclosure II
> ------------------
>
> From Ranjit Kumar Maiti, Panchayat and Rural Development Department,
> Government of West Bengal, Kolkata
> Posted 10 August 2007
>
> Dear Friends,
> I work with the Government of West Bengal in the Panchayat and Rural
> Development Department. We have taken a number of initiatives to
> empower panchayats at the grassroots level to make them responsive to
> the needs of the common citizens. One of the ways the local government
> Panchayati Raj Institutions can be effective is by keeping in close
> touch with the problems of the common people and responding to their
> aspirations.
>
> To supplement to our e-governance efforts in the Panchayat and Rural
> Development Department, we are going to experiment with mobile
> technology in remote and inaccessible areas for dissemination of
> various types of information that could be useful to the people - like
> alerts for important fund releases; organization of health camps and
> polio vaccination camps; disaster alerts etc. using push technology
> (by which the Web Server "pushes" information to the user rather than
> waiting for the user to request for information).
> ..............
> ...[the document quotes large number of examples and produces emails
> of those who have applauded the efforts ..]
> .. the document is at
> http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/Download-document/734-Mobile-Technology-for-e-Governance.html
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Re-joinder to Disclosure
> =================
>
> "..The application will provides Microsoft COM based APIs to develop
> and integrate
> with custom applications. The following is SMS enterprise framework:
>             [.figure given here...]
> The SMS enterprise will be is a high performance and highly scalable
> software. The software will allows to control the speed since many
> SMPP service providers will not allow sending messages above a
> specified throughput. SMS enterprise can be integrated with almost any
> type of software with a short messaging requirement..."
>
> ... [and finally the cost factor]..
>
> "a].Purchase of OS for Server (Enterprise with 60 user license)      1,50,000
> b].Purchase of SMS Enterprise Server software
>  6,00,000
> c].Purchase of SMS Pack of 2 lac SMS valid for 1year                  1,00,000
> d].Purchase of Antivirus solution for all handhelds for 1year
> subscription  1,00,000"
>
> ...[and who is responsible for execution]
>  "..Shri Subhra Chakrabarty, WBCS (EXE), Programme Officer IT [having]
> Experience in Accounts, Panchayat & Rural Developments, Database
> Management, Project Managements & Computerisations [responsible for]
> Development of Software, Training, Facilitation, Handholding &
> Management of the Project..."
>
> The entire document is at
> http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/comm_update/res-21-150308-13.pdf
>
> [..somewhere in this document it also mentions that NIC has been
> instructed to develop GPMS in open source software.. Java components
> ??..]


> ===================================
>
> CK Raju
>
> "At the end of every revolution, the planets reach the same spot."
> [heard from Amarnath Raja, CEO Inapp]
>
> My rejoinder : The left front should be a planet.

We are discussing this issue for past 2 weeks. I request FSF India to
write an Open letter to WB Govt. I feel Debeesh Das (It minister, WB
govt) was a speaker in Free Software and e-governance in recent
Chennai programme (Controversial). We need to ask him to act on this
immediately.

Anivar

-- 
Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free
Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs.
Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.