Slashdot Mirror
President Of India Advocates OSS
cOdEgUru writes "I am sure this is a first. The President of India has urged Indian IT Professionals to develop and specialise in OSS rather than Windows. To be noted is that he made the speech (look for the "Think Different" section) at the famous Indian Institute of Information Technology (India's foremost academic institution equivalent to MIT). Also he reminisces that his meeting with Mr.Gates were difficult due to differing views concerning OSS and Security. What should be noted about him is that he is not a politician, but a scientist and an independent thinker foremost."
The President made the speech at the new International Institute Of Information Technology (I2IT) not at IIT.
The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions. Further spread of IT which is influencing the daily life of individuals would have a devastating effect on the lives of society due to any small shift in the business practice involving these proprietory solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open source software need to be built which would be cost effective for the entire society. In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people.
I am from India, and have been reading these things on /. in the recent stories on India. India is not a poor country, where everyone is just trying to break free of poverty. Please.
There is a sizeable population in India which earns very well and significantly contributes to the Indian economy.
RTFA!
He made the speech at the International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT) not at an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT).
By no stretch of the imagination are any of these India's foremost academic institutions. The submitter perhaps meant one of the Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT) here...
rmathew.com
It would be great for a country the population of India to listen and follow their leaders urging, but I seriously doubt in a country where many are trying to break free of poverty that they will work for next to nothing on OSS
You assume that
working on OSS == working for nothing.
Take a look at the kernel development list. You will find that nearly everyone working on the kernel is employed by a big IT company.
Similarly with most other successful OSS projects. IBM has lots of people working on open source. Ditto RedHat, Suse, HP, Sun, AOL and others. I think it is time we dropped this idea that OSS programmers all do it for free - it isn't the case.
The Indian President, unlike the American president, is a ceremonial head of the state. All the powers lie in the hands of the Prime Minister (currently Atal Bihari Vajpayee). The president of India need not be a politician, and is not elected by the large electorate. The lawmakers elect the president.
The Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam, has received the highest civilian award in India, Bharat Ratna, before he was elected President. He is a nuclear Scientist, who headed India's defense laboratories.
Note that the article summary incorrectly identifies the venue of the speech as an IIT. The institute that Kalam inaugurated is an IIIT (note the 3 I-s?), or Indian Insititue of Information Technology; these teach people to program, as opposed to the IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) which, among other things, teach computer science. May I point out they have an /excellent/ Aerospace Engineering program? (alumnus pride)
"what Ghandi would say about the president of India having helped design nuclear missiles?"
Actually, Gandhi believed in the doctrine of Ahimsa, or non-violence. His brand was a bit different from that of the Jesus "Slap-my-left-cheek-and-I'll-show-you-my-right" brand.
While advocating tolerance to evil, Gandhi also extolled self-defence and defence-preparedness. To sum up, Gandhi would've approved the design of nuclear misiles, but with a rider - to be employed after all other peaceful avenues (Ahimsa - non-violence, satyagraha - The path of Truth) etc. were exhausted.
With reference to MS, this could have meant - If MS lives and lets Open Source live - no worries. If they adopt an either-you-or-me attitude, then it's time to act positively and decisively.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
1. Indian president is not elected directly, but indirectly by elected representatives.
2. Current president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is an exception. While previous presidents were just symbolic heads as dictated by constitution, Dr Kalam has actually taken steps to bridge the communication gaps, meeting publically and raising his opinions on matters... to much discomfort of the dirty politicians.
3. Dr. Kalam meets hundreds of school children daily. His vision is to bring about awareness in current generation and imbibe a scientic vision in them. He encourages them to question the things around them.
4. Dr. Kalam has been very supportive of humanitarian work. His team developed an ultra-light carbon composite for heat shields of ICBM Agni missile. Working with a doctor, Dr Kalam made available that material for making artificial limbs of physically challanged children. An artifical leg for children which used to weigh 3.5 KG (7 pounds) now weights 300 grams (less than 1 pound). Dr Kalam lists this achievement in his 3 life time achievements above all nuclear and missile stuff !!
5. He has written two books which are one of its kind. You have to read them to believe them!
- mritunjai
Or more precisely, on Dr Kalam leading the team which made the nuke bomb.:-)
Two different perspectives on this. Larry Collins and Dominic Lapierre, in their extremely readable book, Freedom at Midnight, had suggested that India's testing of the bomb in 1970's was the final break from Mahatma Gandhi's path of non-violence and ahimsa. Raj Chengappa, in a much later book on Pokhran II, Weapons of Peace, asked the same question to the nuclear team, which, of course, consisted of Dr Kalam. The team apparently had their conscience clear; they were developing nuclear weapons not to increase India's fighting ability, but to increase its deterrent ability. We had, to be sure, "not seeked territory in a thousand years" (or something like that; quoting the words from memory), and that, therefore, Gandhiji would have approved.
I'm sure the team meant well, and personally, I've always admired Dr Kalam and the other team leader, Dr Chidambaram, but with all due respects, the deterrent ability of India's nukes (and indeed our missiles) have long been answered on the snow-capped peaks of Kargil. They are not going to stop terrorists from killing Indian nationals or attacking Indian installations, establishments and everything we hold dear. Not just that, we must also note that large-scale industries are not discouraged, alchohol is not prohibitted (or even if it was, the prohibition has been lifted), or village-level self-governance is not encouraged.
I don't know if Gandhiji would have approved, but let's at least be honest here:- India has left Gandhi a long time back, during the days of our first PM, Nehru itself, when we had established factories, dams and other large scale industries that Gandhiji detested so much.
More than mere navel gazing.