Interesting read Fred.
But it makes me wonder. As far as I know the third answer is false unless just a few
thousand rupees of public money is spent on institutions like CDAC. They also develop lots
of non-GPLed stuff that remains that way till oblivion. Secondly, institutions like TDIL,
although out of the educational institute arena as limited in the question, are investing
in solutions on closed source architectures.
I guess its time to ask the question again.
Mayank
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 Frederick Noronha(FN) wrote :
http://164.100.24.219/rsq/quest.asp?qref=89320
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MINISTRY OF 69
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 976
TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.12.2003
PROMOTION OF FREE LIBRE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
976. SHRI FALEIRO EDUARDO MARTINHO
Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:-
(a) what steps have been taken since the announcement of the Linux India Initiative by
Government on the issue of promoting free/libre and open source software within the
country;
(b) the level of usage of FLOSS products in Government and semi- Government organizations;
and
(c) whether the research benefits of publicly-funded computing institutions would be made
sharable to all, by placing the same under the General Public Licence (GPL) or similar
licences that do not restrict sharing of knowledge due to copyright restrictions?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(SU THIRUNAVUKKARASAR)
(a): Two more consultative meetings have been held since then for in-depth discussion on
projects and policy positions to be taken-one within the Government and associated
agencies and another with NGOs/Civil Society. Various related initiatives, as planned,
under Linux India Initiative exercise are also being pursued.
(b): They are growing.
(c): Research benefits of publicly funded computing institutions are being shared wherever
appropriate. For instance, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) had added
components relating to a number of Indian languages for Linux available under General
Public Licence (GPL) in September, 2003. Similarly, open office solutions have been
provided for Indian languages under GPL developed by C-DAC, CollabCAD software developed
by National Informatics Centre (NIC) package has also been put in a limited sharing mode
within certain agencies of Government. C-DAC has also put its Indian fonts in public
domain. Wherever appropriate, software developed under public funded efforts are being
shared under GPL or similar licenses that do not restrict the sharing of knowledge due to
copyright restrictions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Noronha (FN) Near Convent, SALIGAO 403511 GOA India
Freelance Journalist Tel: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436
http://www.ilug-goa.tk (GNULinux Users Group Goa)
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