| Indian government initiative launches Linux portal |
Sep. 27, 2004
India's National Informatics Centre (NIC) has launched an Open Source Forum (OSF). The project is part of an initiative of the government's Department of Information Technology. OSF encourages an exchange of ideas, information, and first-hand reports of Linux in practice.
Areas of discussion on the site cover open standards-based software running on any operating system, including Windows and Linux. Current content features topics such as hardware support and device drivers for Linux, as well as Java Messenging Service (JMS) solutions.
For over 26 years NIC has been steering Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) applications in government departments. The group provides services that promote transparency in government functions and improve decentralized planning and management. NIC established India's government network, NICNET, and supports government IT services. NICNET spans across all central government departments, 35 State/UT Secretariats, and almost all 602 District Collectorates, for IT services.
Vaibhav Uprety runs the site. Uprety says he joined NIC in January and developed the project as a summer intern. Now full-time with National Informatics Centre, he is currently developing and maintaining the portal.
New Dehli-based NIC was set up with the objective to promote economic, social, scientific, and technological activities, and also for a macro-economic adjustment program of the Government, through the applications of IT.
OSF was developed by Uprety using Plone and Zope software. Plone is a content management system built on the powerful and free Zope Application server. Both projects are open source.
Linux is increasingly making its way into the public sector throughout India. Sun Microsystems landed a significant deal in March with the government of Haryana, an Indian state with about 31,000 desktops.
The country has also seen increased interest in Linux. Red Hat and other Linux vendors have increased their presence in the country. Hyderabad, India-based ELX said it expects to double sales of Linux desktops in the country to 100,000 units this year. Oracle, too, reports that more of its customers in India are moving to Linux, calling it the "#2 choice for businesses."
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