The IT@School project by the Kerala govt was active much before 2001 and while initially suggesting proprietary software later moved to Free Software with KSTA's direct intervention
Thanks again for the links…So are there 2 groups in Kerala or is it all under one banner?
Here is another important link:
http://kstakerala.in/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/06/G.O.109.pdf
The trigger apparently was M$ stopping support for WinXP - and State of Kerala did not want to pay upgrade fees.. Which totally makes sense.