The state of Kerala, India, has opened Swatantra, the largest government FOSS center in the world. Swatantra falls under the auspices of Kerala's International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS). In 2001, Kerala adopted a formal, pro-FOSS technology policy.
'Swatantra', an initiative of International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), will house the FOSS incubation centre and training space. It is aimed at enhancing the government's agenda of promoting democratic access to information with the objective of sustainable economic development.
Earlier on SN:
Government of Indian State Fully Adopts FOSS in Schools; Saves $45M (2017)
Government of India Adopts FOSS Preferred Policy (2015)
Related Stories
Simon Sharwood over at El Reg reports on policy guidelines from the Indian government's technology department:
India's Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY)--has laid out a new policy (PDF) commanding the nation's government to use only open source software.
The policy statement is rather blunt:
Government of India shall endeavour to adopt Open Source Software in all e-Governance systems implemented by various Government organizations, as a preferred option in comparison to Closed Source Software (CSS). The Open Source Software shall have the following characteristics:
- The source code shall be available for the community/adopter/end-user to study and modify the software and to redistribute copies of either the original or modified software.
- Source code shall be free from any royalty.
Compliance with the policy is "mandatory" and applies to all central government agencies for state agencies when they replace or upgrade "e-governance" software. There's an out if an agency needs software that isn't readily available as open source, but the policy insists on calling for only open source products in all future RFPs.
[...]There's also lots of wriggle room in the definition of "e-governance", which DEITY says is "A procedural approach in which the Government and the citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders are able to transact all or part of activities using Information and Communication Technology tools."
Between that loose definition and the get-out clause for apps that aren't easily found as FOSS, it looks like India's not blocking proprietary software entirely, but is making it plain it prefers open source whenever possible.
It's worth noting that the state of Tamil Nadu and the state of Kerala have been leaders in the move to Free and Open Source Software in India, pursuing that path for many years in government, especially in education.
BGR (originally Boy Genius Report) reports
The Kerala government has made a saving of Rs 300 crore through introduction and adoption of Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) in the school education sector, said a state government official [February 26]. IT became a compulsory subject in Kerala schools from 2003, but it was [only in 2005] that FOSS was introduced in a phased manner and started to replace proprietary software.
[...] "The proprietary version of this software would have incurred a minimum cost of Rs 150,000 per machine [$2250] in terms of [license] fee. Hence, the minimum savings in a year (considering 20,000 machines) is Rs 300 crore [$45M]. It's not the cost saving that matters more, but the fact that the Free Software [license] enables not only teachers and students but also the general public an opportunity to copy, distribute, and share the contents and use it as they wish", [said K. Anwar Sadath, executive director IT@School.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @05:00PM (1 child)
"Largest?" By what, budget? Number of people? Acre?
"It is aimed at enhancing the government’s agenda of promoting democratic access to information with the objective of sustainable economic development."
What does this mean really? Are they gonna develop software or develop policy? Sounds more like a shallow PR move than anything of substance.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Monday March 04 2019, @05:06PM
Seems, after further internet searching, like they mean square footage of office space specifically devoted to developing open source projects, excluding offices run mixed between for-profit ventures related to open source like the former red-hat headquarters.
(Score: 2, Informative) by ikanreed on Monday March 04 2019, @05:01PM (16 children)
What are India's target milestones there? They've got some big obstacles to overcome. Their constitution nominally guarantees all citizens a clean environment, and to that end they've reduced air particulate levels through a couple pieces of legislation but that's only local concerns. As far as I can tell reviewing the available legislation, they've not set any limits on carbon emissions.
Worse still, like the US, their president is now a psychotic, science-denying, far-right asshole.
Maybe they'll just fix global warming with that war with Pakistan they've been brewing up.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @05:26PM (14 children)
The Paks don't have any part in instigating tensions between India and Pakistan? Seems to me that the Paks attack Indians, more often than Indians attack Paks. There happens to be a dispute about the borders. India would like to see that region developed, and has made overtures at cooperation between the nations to develop it. Pakistan prefers to shoot at anyone who even gets close to the area. The suicide attacks over the years adds to the hatred.
The religious differences fuel the hatred: Pakis, being predominantly Muslim, need to jihad against someone, anyone, to ensure that they get into paradise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_conflict [wikipedia.org]
The situation in the Kashmir valley confirms the idea that Islam is incompatible with democracy. The Muslims don't care what their neighbors want, and would rather kill the neighbors, than make any compromise.
Now, let's not jump to any conclusions that Runaway approves of everything that India does. While India seems to be less provocative than Pakistan, India does it's share of provocation.
Bloomberg's article should be enlightening: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-02-28/india-pakistan-war-claims-first-casualty-truth [bloomberg.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday March 04 2019, @05:33PM (13 children)
I mean, it takes two to tango, and the factors behind the conflict are complex, but Pakistani military incursions into Indian territory: 0. Radical groups within Pakistan are not without blame, and the government should do more to control those groups' support of Kashmiri independence groups, but you're just kinda racist? Very racist? Pointlessly racist? Consistently racist? So Muslim-hating that you'll push for nuclear war that could wipe out half the world's crops for a couple years, just in case it kills some?
Anyways, I wasn't even blaming India for that, per se. I didn't mean to imply they were the sole provocateur, just that they are working towards that potential end.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @05:50PM (4 children)
Well, yes, I'm pretty contemptuous of Muslims in general, and Paki Muslims in particular. That isn't racism though. Find a more fitting word, alright?
But, I'm glad that you can see that both sides are at fault. IMO, the Pakis own something near 75% of the fault, and India owns the rest. The Bloomberg article details how Indians in general are reacting to the conflict. Just like Americans prior to the invasion of Iraq, they think it will be some kind of cakewalk - go in, kick ass, take what they want, and come home in a week or two with everything they demand. THAT ain't happening. Backed into a corner, the Paks will launch nukes.
And, mark my word: If the Pakis launch, Muslims around the world will be dancing in the streets, just like they danced when the Towers fell in New York City. If India responds with their own launch, Muslims around the world will feel compelled to launch jihads against all who are allied with India, as well as all of the west.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @06:44PM (3 children)
Hahahahah
racist little runaway was born in the wrong century, the crusades were a long time ago dooderino
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @06:55PM
and the musrats are starting shit again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @07:38PM (1 child)
Not that long... A little over 17 years, or about 71, if you wanna get real. No wait, it was after the fall of the Ottoman empire. Yeah, that's it.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday March 04 2019, @09:02PM
Well, perhaps not the Ottoman Empire. Possibly the Ghanznaids [wikipedia.org], or maybe even as far back as the Samanid Empire. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Monday March 04 2019, @05:51PM (7 children)
Unfortunately your statement implies that the radical groups within Pakistan are not directly or indirectly encourage by the Pakistani government. Something which really just isn't true.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/05/why-pakistan-supports-terrorist-groups-and-why-the-us-finds-it-so-hard-to-induce-change/ [brookings.edu]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_and_state-sponsored_terrorism [wikipedia.org]
https://www.voanews.com/a/radical-political-groups-raise-concern-in-pakistan/4186579.html [voanews.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Monday March 04 2019, @06:25PM (6 children)
Sorry, but I'm not getting into the weeds on this. Runaway purposefully over-read a statement to create a sentiment I don't back. I responded that the context was more complicated. The blame game on India-Pakistan goes back fucking 70 years, more if you count ethno-religious disputes that existed long prior to their current form as nations.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday March 04 2019, @07:07PM (3 children)
You can probably blame the British who have the responsibility for the Partition of India [wikipedia.org], although some of the blame could probably be placed upon the Hindu and Muslim nationalist movements [wikipedia.org].
Could the British have done a better job? - quite probably yes. Would it have made a difference? - quite possibly not. In any event, the British were in charge and failed to produce an integrated society.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday March 04 2019, @08:55PM (2 children)
Well, yes, but...
As I understand it, before the British India wasn't a country, so calling the amalgamation of it into administrative districts that eventually turned into countries a partition sounds a bit wrong. You can find historic parallels for India being a nation (I'm not sure about Pakistan), but I'm not sure what the boundaries of those empires (they weren't countries) were.
IIUC, this isn't like the middle east where similar groups were split up and grouped with different groups to make things easier to control, but rather a place were lots of independent kingdoms and city-states were grouped together for administrative convenience. They didn't even speak mutually intelligible languages, which is why English ended up the official language of India when it became a country. The "Partition of India" that you are referring to happened in 1947, which is long after Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. It was actually when Britain relinquished claim to rule India, and appears to have been an attempt to produce two religiously homogeneous countries. There were huge problems, but a single country might well have been worse.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday March 04 2019, @09:39PM (1 child)
India had been ruled as a (pretty much) single entity under previous empires (The Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire). The British obtained power over the inhomogenous India states/principalities via the East India Company, but following the Indian Rebellion of 1858, the British government took direct rule. From 1858 to 1947 the British had full power over the Indian Subcontinent. The Partition of 1947 was a terrible misstep but opinions differ as to whether it was inevitable or not [wikipedia.org]. Nonetheless, the British ruled India for long enough that the events that led up to the Partition were squarely during their rule and the British did not see what the consequences of their mismanagement of India would be - or if they did see them, didn't care. So the British administration was either incompetent or deliberately negligent.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday March 04 2019, @10:04PM
If you were administrator of Israel, how would you address the conflicting religions?
Sometimes there isn't an obvious answer.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Monday March 04 2019, @08:27PM (1 child)
Not to mention the story we're discussing is in Kerala.
It would be pretty damn hard to be any further away from that scary border and still be in India!
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday March 04 2019, @08:31PM
I wanted to focus on India's sustainability plans because English language sources about it suck ass.
But I had to mention current eventsTM so now we're here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @08:31PM
Everyone right to you is far-right becuase you a violent far-left turd.
"psychotic" - right!
"science-denying" - which is why he is funding science and engineering research institutes [business-standard.com] and reducing government funding of "education promoting NGOs" [business-standard.com].
"asshole" - right!
Did you learn about this psychotic asshole while prostituting yourself to him? Homosexuality was decriminalized under his rule [indiatimes.com] after all!
"war with Pakistan they've been brewing up" - Because 40 Indian soldiers dying in suicide bombing [theweek.in] done by trained terrorist [hindustantimes.com] under well known Paki support [rediff.com] enjoying complete immunity [hindustantimes.com] is nothing compared to the bombing of trees [reuters.com]!
You far-lefties are just that stupid. If a Muslim terrorist had "I am victim" written on his dick you will want a government program to promote taking it up the ass. Can't hate that govt mullah! But by GOD someone says I love my country - any country - that person is literal NAZI and the only good NAZI is one 6 feet under.
What a far-right psychotic asshole. Seriously, Kan You Reed?
BONUS: FAKE NEWS CNN [indiatimes.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @05:46PM (1 child)
Raise taxes on open source facilities to pay for the services all the people working for free will require from the government. Itemize the services used by each (both open source vs not) worker to determine the amount to tax.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @05:51PM
Dafuq?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @07:47PM (2 children)
I think they're famous for their underwater basket weaving. Probably have good weed and hash.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @08:57PM (1 child)
Dr. Asshole, paging Dr. Asshole! We have a prolapsed anus in need of immediate surgery!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 04 2019, @10:59PM
Hello, you've reached the central pharmacy. Dr. Cheeks is currently out making his rounds, and is a little behind. He'll get back to you shortly.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...