Many politicians are not IT Savvy in INDIA but this news is really interesting. FOSS can help us build the softwares that are required for the e-Governance and there is no need to depend on an multinational for our country’s IT empowerment. We got to build e-Governance software Independently. Today Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India’s largest political party, is going ahead with FOSS to build its party IT infrastructure.
Some states in India are going ahead for tie-ups with Microsoft and other proprietary software vendors for software solutions. We have been protesting against such tie-ups and I want to quote “Save Kannada” protest which apposed Karnataka government’s MoM with Microsoft. The protest page explains us why it’s not safe to give access to any MNC to get country’s sensitive data.
BJPs stand to go with FOSS is very much appreciated. Though there were no visible talks with the FOSS community and the party, this step will set a new example for other parties and governments.
Marco Fioretti writes on Linux.com
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India’s largest political party, with around 20 million Ordinary Members and about 4 million Active Members. In June, BJP announced its goal to become one of the most high-tech political parties in the next two years, and free and open source software (FOSS) will play an essential role in this project. Continue Reading…
| Function | Chosen software |
|---|---|
| Server Virtualization | OpenVZ and Vtonf |
| Router + Firewall + VPN | Vyatta |
| Unified Threat Management | Untangle |
| HTTP Accelerator | Varnish |
| Proxy Server | Squid |
| Digital Repository | ePrints |
| Qmail, Courier Imap and Squirrelmail | |
| Instant Messaging | OpenFire plus Spark |
| Video and Voice Telephony | Asterisk, Hylafax |
| Mailing List | Ezmlm |
| Security Camera Management | ZoneMinder |
| Identity Management | Fedora Directory Server |
| Web Content Management | Joomla! |
| Remote WAN-based Backup | VZDump and rSync |
| Storage Area Network | OpenFiler |
| Network Management | Zenoss |
Read Press release on Hindustan Times: Video telephony, SMS network, BJP has it all
ಉತ್ತಮ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ, ಶಿವು!!
How could it be a good deal to let the “sensitive” data of the country to be given to FOSS? Would you think the sensitive data would still be safe and not made accessible to public? Ponder!?
ನಿಜಕ್ಕೂ ಇದು ಖುಶಿಯ ಸಮಾಚಾರ. ಬಿಜೆಪಿ ಒಂದು ಹೊಸ ಅಲೆಯನ್ನು ಹುಟ್ಟು ಹಾಕಿದರೆ ಸಂತೋಷ.
Praveen,
We have the freedom to choose, edit, modify and audit the software and we can build a team with young talented people within the country who are responsible enough to ensure the national security. I think we need not depend on an MNC to provide such secure feeling for our nation isn’t it? We were ruled by foreigners for years and is it is necessary to be ruled by the same people yet again in the Information age?
What Microsoft/ Intel have done is made mass countries fools of their advertisements. Windows itself is a stolen one from Sun. More over it is known for its security vulnerabilities. Despite these facts should countries sensitive data be given to them
. God bless the fools from recogonizing fools.