[Fsf-friends] Microsoft's Killer Formula on Indian Establishments

ck raju ck.thrissur at gmail.com
Fri Sep 11 12:09:35 IST 2009


The inspiration for this writing is the recent public applauding of
the computerisation efforts of Information Kerala Mission by a person
heading a political estabilshment in Kerala. The audience is reported
to be a trade-union organisation formed by the employees of IKM.

There's hardly any doubt about the ingenuity of the plan that IKM
unfolded in Kerala through its operations meant for networking the
1200+ local self-government institutions to the State Planning Board.
Microsoft services were designed and developed, for its usage here.
IKM being a technical body created entirely for this purpose, thus
became a monopoly consultant for the government on most of its matters
pertaining to applications in Information Technology. The State now,
needn't require any external flow of queries for the purpose of
initial consultations. Everything to the minutest detail would be
provided by IKM. Once IKM decided on the solutions, wherever public
participation is needed, quotations would be solicited. Owing to the
secrecy of its operations and the extreme delicate nature of its
implications, the biggest need for the successful design of a
proprietary solution was thus identified not as the developers, but
the consultant itself.

This genuine and highly imaginative move was to be later replicated by
Microsoft Inc at a number of other establishments in India, many of
them in other State Governments, Public Sector Establishments like
Banks etc and the Central Government. Microsoft's novel entry into
National Informatics Center which controlled most of the technological
activities of the Central government helped it in identifying the
IKM-like establishment for the Central Government - in this case it
were identified as NIC. The NIC's clout and its huge presence in
almost all departments made it the biggest catch of Microsoft. NIC
were to act like the monopoly consultant to Central government, much
like the role IKM played for Government of Kerala.

In the Ministry of Rural Development, NIC's consultation services are
at its imaginative best. For the network of over 3,00,000 gram
panchayats and block panchayats of our nation, NIC consultants have
offered Microsoft-based services, which would require among other
things, Microsoft tools and accessories. A single software application
what would have been worth a few lakh of rupees at the most, now runs
into at least Rs 20 billion when the project gets matured. Unsatisfied
at this, the NREGS monitoring system now tries to rope in as many
proprietary technologies as possible to make it appear complex - the
latest experiment is also participated by some of the tribal
panchayats in Wayanad - to make the whole ICT venture give a "pro-poor
people" appeal and a sanction of the left-supported Government (so
that it can be replicated in West Bengal and Tripura and at all other
states where there is a Left political presence!). The people there
are planned to be supplied with Smart Cards to record their attendance
at NREGS ! Similar applications would also be run as pilot projects of
NREGA monitoring system in villages of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh,
Orissa and Bihar.

The ingenuity of the formula that IKM proved for Microsoft doesn't end
with governments. In scientific and research establishments like ISRO,
an application which mimics googleearth - the Bhuvan experiment - now
requires citizens of this country to have Microsoft Operating Systems
on their boxes ! What IKM couldn't do Kerala, a single Madhavan Nair
could do for the whole country !! Imagine the extent of Microsoft's
imagination !! Imagination is indeed more important than Knowledge -
how right was Einstein !!

In the banking sector, where citizens have to necessarily trust all
their personal financial transactions and savings,
Infosys-applications act like IKM - insisting that the core-banking
applications should be run only on "Internet Explorer based Windows",
for many critical online applications like railway ticketing etc. A
"regret" is the most what one can expect from the banks !! If one
tried to appeal to the Banking Ombudsman, the shock continues as most
of the applications there are also Microsoft-ised.

NIC's foray into all the parliament activities, all individual
departments or ministries, even the President of India's web-services
made this Microsoft-isation complete.While the entire world struggled
for decades to make Bill Gates the richest person on this planet for
his stupid software, the Governments and Public Institutions in India
have achieved in a few months !! That's the power of the genuinity of
the consultative-trick - one that IKM experiment helped in opening up
of the third-eye of Microsoft !! This killer formula is continuing
with its trickery and will continue to do so in the near future. The
Corporates know that Indians are there for their buying - what they
didn't know is how cheaply they can get through !! With a "Government
for the Corporates, Police for the people" democracy, sky is the
limit.

CK Raju,
IIT Kharagpur


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