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…
| List of software programs used by BJP | |
| 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
