Dated December 26, 2002
The Economic Times

The Government of India has started taking far-reaching steps to usher in a Linux wave in India and that cannot be good news for proprietary software vendors like Microsoft.

On Monday, the IT Ministry held a meeting of around 70 people, from companies like HP, IBM, Sun and TCS, government agencies like BARC and C-DAC and state governments like Kerala, West Bengal and MP to evolve a level playing field for Linux vis-à-vis proprietary software (read Microsoft). All the IITs too were represented at the meeting that went on for 4 hours. There was consensus in the meeting that Linux was a secure, robust and cost-effective system. As far as concrete pro-Linux acts go, government may soon stop specifying Microsoft or any other vendor's name while floating tenders, thus throwing open the way for Linux vendors to grab lucrative government contracts hitherto barred for them.

The government is also setting up special interest groups with industry and academia representatives to find out how Linux can be deployed in eGovernance, Defense, Education and so on. Since support to Linux is still a big issue, the government is also thinking in terms of setting up support and resource services, and call centers for Linux users. It is also looking at setting up pilot sites, where Linux applications can be "touched and felt".

A heartening fact for Linuxphiles would be the enthusiasm for Linux shown by extremely security sensitive agencies like Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the National Information Centre (NIC). Another aspect that came out in the meeting was the work on Indianization of Linux that's happening now. C-DAC agency NCST and Red Hat have, for instance, developed a Hindi version of Linux, called Idix. IIT, Mumbai too is doing pioneering research in Linux.

Monday's meeting of industry, academia and government representatives was chaired by IT Secretary Shri. R.R. Shah. According to industry sources, companies like Sun and TCS were all enthusiasm for Linux, with the TCS representative claiming that the company was implementing the country's largest Linux project in Chennai. The government, however, was at pains to bring out the fact that it was not against Microsoft or proprietary software.

Proprietary, open source can co-exist, says IT Secy

The Department of IT today made it clear that there was a place for both proprietary and open source software in its larger scheme to provide the country with a robust IT infrastructure. Amidst persistent reports that the government is pushing for open source software in the form of a Linux India initiative that includes a policy shift, IT Secretary Shri. Rajeeva Ratna Shah, today clarified that the IT Department has never been vendor-specific, product-specific or genre-specific in its approach.

"The final decision will rest with the consumer and it is market and competitive forces that will decide which gets priority," he said. According to him, the government is interested in keeping abreast of global trends in technology usage and he therefore called a meeting of industry to study the potential for open source software.