Government accounts are single entry; no ledgers. Just cash books. All transactions are only on ``receipts'' basis only. What is the difficulty here? A simple spread shit (OO.o, gnumeric, etc. will do).
Vakil, I think there is also a danger if we start entertaining arguments from this "fitness for a purpose" direction (or for that matter the "rate of development of Free Software services"), when we are discussing about freedom of access, analysis or modification of software relating to public services. In the initial days of IT@School programme in Kerala, we had heard such arguments and listened to teachers who wanted to know how to counter such arguments - which invariably came up at every public engagement of issues involving software freedom.
A democratic state is what is constituted by its citizens. It need not necessarily entertain something dictated by a corporate or wishful thinking of government servants (if it happens to be on behalf of corporates), and in any case, its the will of the citizens that are paramount. The preamble is pretty clear about this aspect. Here, a mail server assumes great significance to the citizens of this nation because it is a platform or interface through which we express our thoughts and expressions. This is a mode of expression of a fundamental right by any citizen who has access to internet.
A state cannot be part of any contractual obligation with which it cannot guarantee a citizen adequate processing of her data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning. This is where Free Software (a technical term - to quote Dr Nagarjuna - which is any software that guarantees freedom of use, analysis, distribution and publishing with amendments) should be projected as a solution to every public service in a democratic state.
And we are not even denying Microsoft from extending its services to BSNL with such freedoms incorporated in its solutions. All what we are claiming is that without insistence on these guarantees required and mandated by our constitution, BSNL's top executives have committed a mistake - and we hope they will soon accord priority to our suggestions.
CK Raju