Dear All,
The extent of mainstream political support for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Open Standards seems to be getting stronger. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party in the current parliament, today released a National IT vision document (http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/images/stories/it-vision.pdf) http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/images/stories/it-vision.pdf which contains strong support for FOSS and Open Standards, such as: 1) Ten Million students to get a laptop (worth Rs 10,000 or around USD 200) which will be loaded with FOSS, (Page 21 of the document) 2) Creation of royalty free open standards ; call for all government software to be based on open standards (page 36, 37) 3) Promotion of user generated, FOSS knowledge repositories in Indian languages - similar to Wikipedia (page 20)
The Left parties in India has been a traditional supporters of FOSS and open standards, with Kerala being a pioneer in the adoption and promotion of FOSS. Now with the BJP too clearly coming out in support of FOSS and Open Standards, there seems to move towards a political consensus favoring FOSS and Open Standards.
In this connection, a few organizations are planning to hold a workshop in Delhi later this month where major political parties will be invited and their support for the adoption and promotion of FOSS and Open Standards will be sought. A draft FOSS manifesto (http://public-software.in/FOSS-manifesto) has been shared earlier on this list for endorsements from individuals and institutions which would also be discussed in this workshop.
Other than the support for FOSS, there are other significant promises as well including
a. Providing a Rs 10,000 fully powered laptop to 10 million students across the country b. Broadband Internet (2 Mbps) in every town and village, at cable TV prices (less than $4 per month). c. National Mission for Promotion of IT in Indian Languages. d. Unrestricted VoIP. e. Domestic IT hardware industry to be promoted to minimise dependence on imports. f. Domestic hosting industry to be promoted to minimise international bandwith charges.
Thanks, Vinay.