From: Kenneth Gonsalves lawgon@thenilgiris.com Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 06:55:38 +0530

The growth of open source movement in India, in the last analysis, is *solely* dependant on the amount of open source code produced here simple, no code, no movement

Amen, you have echoed my thoughts so succintly. For a global IT power, the number of OSS projects out of India is disproportionate. One sees very few names from SE Asia in the program/project credits list.

Not only have the Indian IT power houses like Infosys, Wipro, HCL, etc. not taken any initiative like IBM, HP, Intel and such sponsoring OSDL (for example in the US), the educational institutions also seem to be caught in the web of the incumbent OS with few offerings on FOSS. The emphasis seems to be on teaching how to use packaged tools rather than fundamentals or concepts.

IMO, a good start would be - the IT power houses and the educational institutions to get together and adopt an existing Indianized distro and ensure it continuance with updates/extensions (similar to Red Flag distro in China). The students under guidance could contribute code to defined projects. Their work would also count for credit towards completing their education, the funding could come from the Industry.