--------- Forwarded message ---------- From: kiranchandra kiran@swecha.net Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 8:35 PM Subject: Petition to Cancel Proprietary Tender by NIC given to CJI and DG NIC

For Publication

Eminent personalities including Justice V R Krisha Iyer (former Supreme court judge) and Dr. Pushpa M Bhargava (former Vice Chairman National Knowledge Commission) have called upon the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to cancel its tender (Ref. No: NIC/TPS/2009/18) form purchase of laptops with preloaded software for the Supreme Court of India.

They were part of those who have signed an online petition, which was launched on 24-09-09, opposing this proprietary tender. Justice V R Krisha Iyer in his comment termed this tender reactionary and has pleaded with the Prime Minister to intervene in the name of access to Freedom of Information and Free and Open Source Software. Sixteen organisations (http://www.swecha.org/wiki/index.php?title=Petition) and 370 individuals (http://swecha.org/node/23/signatures) have signed the petition.

The petition has also been sent to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Shri K G Balakrishnan and the Direcetor General of NIC Dr. B K Gairola. There is confirmation from the respective offices that the petition has been received.

The tender relates to purchase of proprietary brands of laptops (Apple laptops) and the software installed (Windows XP) in it. Any fair tendering practice should allow competition and only give system specifications. In this tender, the only brand name given is Apple and only operating system given is Windows XP from Microsoft. This makes the tender a single source tender and is clearly anti-competitive since there is wide choice of hardware, software and operating systems in the market. Therefore, this is not a single vendor situation and no exception should be considered on this count.

Moreover, the above mentioned tender is for laptops to be used by the Supreme Court of India. As the supreme judicial body of the country, the Court must set a proper precedent and not allow such unfair tendering practice.

The tender also goes against stated government policy of encouraging free and open source softeware, and open standards. The National Knowledge Commission in its report on e-governance submitted to the Prime Minister stated, “Because of the enormous size and scope of the E-governance effort in India and because of the availability of globally recognized software talent of Indians,we must actively encourage open source software implementations and open standards wherever possible.”

The Department of Information Technology, in its Elevent Five Year Plan (2007-2012) has remarked that, “If computer adoption has to reach from current 1% of population to say 5% in next five years, we have to seriously pursue some other route, viz., that of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS).”

The current tender’s preference for proprietary suppliers will encourage vendor lock-in as their data and files can be read by only their software. Such a step by the Supreme Court would set the clock back in the country, where increasingly Government organisations and others are turning to Free and Open Source Software. In this context, it might be noted that Allahabad High Court has already successfully converted to FOSS and Open Standards (http://www.allahabadhighcourt.in/faq.htm)

Institutions like NIC under the Ministry of Information and Technology have to ensure the adoption of software that complies with open standards. It was therefore demanded that the current tender should be scrapped forthwith and a new tendering process be initiated without naming any brands and incorporating Free and Open Source Software.

Organisations & Important Persons endorsing the petition   (Web link : http://www.swecha.org/wiki/index.php?title=Petition )

* Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer's comments

"The present move by NIC is reactionary. I feel there is much        substance in the points made in the petition and plead with the        Prime Minister to intervene in the name of access to Freedom of        Information and Free and Open Source Software".      * Former Vice Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission Pushpa        M Bhargava's comments

"I am all in for free and open source software"      * Swecha (http://swecha.org/)

* Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom (DAKF)

* Appropriate Technology Promotion Society (ATPS), Kochi        (http://www.atps.in/)

* Free Software Industries Association (FSIA), Kerala        (http://www.fsia.in/)

* Open Software Solutions Industrial Co-operative Society        (OSSICS), Kochi (http://www.ossics.com/)

* Free Software Foundation, Tamil Nadu (FSFTN)

* IT for Change, Bangalore

* Knowledge Commons, New Delhi

* Free Software Movement Karnataka (http://fsmk.org/)

* Linux User Group @ IIT Delhi (http://www.lug-iitd.org/)

* Centre for Internet and Society (http://www.cis-india.org/)

* Free Software Foundation of India (http://www.gnu.org.in/)

* IIT Madras Linux Users Group (http://iitmlug.a.wiki-site.com/)

* Linux Campus Club SJCE Mysore (http://www.lccsjce.org/)

* [Free Software Movement West Bengal]

* Linux Users' Group, NITK Surathkal

Yours Sincerely

Y.Kiran Chandra Chairman (Swecha) (On behalf of the endorsing individuals and organisations)