India-Tech/Development-Bangalore

Grassroots push for 'open source' in Indian software

By Frederick Noronha

BANGALORE, Aug 26 (IANS): 'Open source' and free software could open up new windows of opportunity both for coders in the Indian software power-house, and also to benefit those on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Soaring global software prices, tightening anti-piracy laws and even just the ethical edge it promises is pushing campaigners from across the country to lobby with international organisations and governments for the greater use of 'non-proprietorial' software.

Increasingly, a small but growing band of 'free software' and open-source advocates are pushing for a greater emphasis to this form of software. Unlike proprietorial software, open-source can be freely copied and shared across computers.

"If we calculate the actual cost (of pirated software being used in the ... country) India would lose a significant chunk of its billions earned from its software earnings," argues mahiti.org CEO Sunil Abraham.

mahiti.org is a Bangalore-based non-profit organisation that works to 'affordable and simple' solutions to the non-governmental and non-profit sector. Bangalore's NGO sector is rather active, while this city is also considered the software Mecca and sometimes called India's Silicon Valley.

Such a trend pushing towards 'open source' was visible during a United Nations Development Programme-organised meet to shape a UNDP-Government of India country programme on information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development held here on the weeked.

Dominant global players, represented by firms like Microsoft, are hard-pressed to swim against the 'open source' demands.

"Every technology has its pluses and minuses. If you find it is suitable for your purposes, go ahead and use it (open source software). But do an evaluation first. Don't be biased. Nothing is really free," argued Microsoft's manager for technical services in North India, Punya Palit.

"It's not just the 'operating system' that is available, but some 1500 application softwares that come along with it," said Pune-based Systems Research Institute executive director Jagdish G Krishnayya. He pointed to the potential of software like Linux, which is getting increasingly noticed.

'Open source' or free software refers to non-proprietorial software that often allows its users to copy the programme across many computers, meaning that the cost of the software often plunges to unbelievable lows.

Its proponents argue that while this may at first seem as affecting the viability of software businesses, it would throw open vast new fields to software usage in time to come.

"Instead of spending money running after software piracy, the Government of India should spend the funds to promote open source software (which would also bring down piracy of proprietorial software)," Abraham argues.

Other initiatives also give hint of the potential sought to be tapped in the field of open source software.

Recently, UNDP's offices in the US were on the lookout for suitable Indian participants for a global conference, to be held in October at Washington-DC, on the use of 'open source for e-governance'.

Delhi-based alternative organisation Sarai, affiliated to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), along with a forum of lawyers in Bangalore and mahiti.org, plan to build a 'copyleft registry'.

This would list all resources which are publicly accessible and freely reproduceable -- thus promoting its sharing, while at the same time protecting the rights of the person who created the work.

But Abraham argues that public money -- spent on research institutions and universities -- should go towards building software that remains publicly-accessible, and thus 'open source'. He also points out that big names worldwide -- including Nasa, Nato and Walt Disney -- were going in for open source software, and there was no justification for India not.

NGO workers and IT specialists also point to other related issues that block the power of computing in a country like India. Besides the software blocks, there are other factors hampering the greater use of computers in this country of a thousand million people but where PCs sold each year are barely two million or less.

Computing was not benefiting the commonman because it was being divided by multiple standards, multiple vendors, its too-expensive nature, solutions that don't fit Indian requirements, and more importantly the lack of adequate and affordable local language technologies, it was pointed out.

"There is this hype created by computer vendors that hardware needs to be updated constantly," says Government of Madhya Pradesh commissioner for family welfare Aruna Sharma, agreeing at this meet in some way on the need for countries like India to look to alternatives to battle the so-called 'digital divide' that excludes the poor from the power of computing.

Pointing to other options coming up, Dr P Venkatachalam of the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) said that India expects to have satellites that would offer hi-tech 'cartosat' information with detailed images in some two years time.

But, he cautioned, the country would probably have not yet built up enough capacity and skills to make optimal use of such images, which could have considerable applications in rural areas and development.

As this workshop pushed the attention on using ICTs for development, Government of India's Department of IT e-governance director S.P.Singh said fishermen in parts of the country -- particularly the southern Maharashtra coast -- were already using suitable technology.

Some in Ratnagiri, coastal Maharashtra, had gained some access to low-cost fish-finders, global-positioning systems that identified their location and communication equipment which was being used to boost fish-catches.