Two developments vis-a-vis Free Software in Kerala:
* TUG India and Technopark sign MoU on TeX training for employment
Technopark, Trivandrum, and TUG India (the Indian TeX Users' Group) signed an MoU on 7th Apri l2003 for a joint programme where the two organizations are to conduct training on Text Processing using the popular Free Software, TeX. TeX, written by Donald Knuth, a Stanford Professor, forms the core of a suite of Free Software for high-end text processing and prepress work.
Further, after the training is completed, the trainees will be assisted in constituting themselves into Virtual Micro-Enterprises (VMEs) for self employment. Other kinds of support (incubation, small-scale venture capital) will also be made available for these VMEs through Technopark's support facilities.
The MoU was signed between Rajiv Vasudevan (outgoing CEO, Technopark), NR Mahalingam (CEO Designate, Technopark) and Satish Babu (Secretary, TUG India).
* Kerala PWD to go for Free Software platform
The Public Works Deparment of the GoK is to adopt GNU/Linux as its platform for its enterprise portal. The portal, funded by the World Bank under the Kerala State Tranportation Project, will use PHP and Oracle on GNU/Linux to provide a variety of services for PWD's internal use.
Satish Babu
-- sb@inapp.com