Would beautiful hard bound books and cool looking CD's compensate for good course contents. I would rate the Shiksha Abhiyan by MS -10 on a scale of 1 to 10

As on date we are aware that most (80%) of the world's critical software(s) are being developed in a free and open source environment which is showing a steady upward trend. This is also a site where everyone can contribute and participate, nowhere restricted. Microsoft, however prefers to stick to the techniques deployed by the weakening 20%, often abusing the legal (through patents, restrictive copyrights) and political framework (through tie-ups with governments) to assist its functioning. This is sure a serious attempt to take the present and future technologists and their service-users to an intellectually dark stone-age.

In any ethical dimension, its evident that faced with a choice, embracing the one where many can participate, would be very obvious, because of the non-antagonising face that it shows. On this account, Microsoft comes a total cropper. The existing presence of Microsoft is largely due to the unholy nexus with bureaucracy, which will soon have a natural death, because of the immense challenge that the corporate throws at the Indian school-teaching community, which is by far the best in this world. Shiksha Abhiyan, a gloomy project, thus is doomed to darkness, where the contribution of Microsoft will indeed be 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. CK Raju Thrissur