On Saturday 12 September 2009, ck raju wrote: > Appended below is a transcript of what I sent across to the Economic > Crime Wing in CBI as well as to CAG. We need to come out with more > ideas and try to prevent a proprietary business dealer to take over > the information assets with spywares. I didn't seek any formal > sanction for mentioning the names of the professors below, but I guess > I am within my right to quote their names. Perhaps Prof Nagarjuna > could inform us how to take off from here.. > CK Raju > > ================== > Sir, > For real-time monitoring of NREGS activities the present software > designed and maintained by NIC is a proprietary one. After > commissioning proprietary server components in 3,00,000 rural local > self government institutions, the total cost to the public exchequer > will come to at least Rs 15 billion. All this money can be saved if > transition is made to software released under General Public License > (Free and Open Source Software), where source code is also available > for inspection, or modification. > > For e-Governance system this would mean that the state would be able > to extend guarantee to citizens that their public information is not > susceptible to manipulation by any kind of spy-code. Also since Free > Software adheres to non-proprietary, royalty-free open standards which > are published in public domains, guaranteed accessibility of > information is not left to the goodwill of any supplier of software. > Moreover, permanent availability of all data and formats are > guaranteed because of strict adherence to published royalty-free > standards and protocols. > > Since proprietary software are free to invent their own formats and do > not publish their source code for inspection by the public at large, > there is always a limit placed on their claims of secure-ness and > guaranteed availability or accessibility of public information encoded > in their systems. No amount of algorithms however public they are and > however strictly these are implemented can reasonably guarantee > secure-ness of information if the over-encompassing software > components of the Operating systems (inside which it operates) are > proprietary and un-published in public domains for verification or > inspection. > > For rural bodies, this would mean that the amount likely to be > displaced can be pooled in for rural welfare activities of our > citizens, instead of allowing it to be channelised to monopoly > software establishments who do not need the assistance of government's > share from rural activities like NREGS for its own growth. The amount > so saved also could be used for training our local human resources for > using and promoting Free Software, especially through public education > systems, as is being strictly followed in all the public high schools > in Kerala. > > NREGS is just one instance wherein this anomaly has come out in the > open. There are other domains too wherein this mechanism is in > operation. Public sector banking establishments that make use of > proprietary software also put the commercial and financial information > at huge risk. Punjab National Bank, for instance, insists that > transactions must be made through proprietary browser software (like > Internet Explorer, which operates only in Microsoft Windows) for > successfully completing the online-reservation of train tickets > through http://irctc.co.in.
irctc.co.in works perfectly with FF on Debian Sarge/Lenny. I have used in innumerable times to make reservations / cancellations. Me thinks this needs to be corrected. > ISRO insists that one should have a > proprietary Microsoft Operating System to access the bhuvan features. > > All these are pointers to a system which fails to adapt itself in a > timely and effective manner, to the modern risks that new software > technology poses before ordinary people. Though these could only be > settled through legislations like bringing in amendments to the IT > Act, these public institutions can nevertheless be directed to cease > forthwith their further plans on proprietary software systems, and > come out with a time bound transition plan, for migrating these > applications to Free Software. Other proprietary establishments can > also partake in this exercise, as long as, they use only software > which are released under general public licenses, where software and > data encoding details are published and available for anyone to study, > distribute, share, modify or even publish with modifications. > > Any amount of intellectual and technical support can be made available > for bringing about a permanent solution to the problems mentioned > herein. A few known experts from premier educational institutions like > IIT, IIM, TIFR etc who actively participate in such issues of document > and software freedom include (a) Prof Deepak B Phatak > [email protected], (b) Prof Prabhu Ramachandran > [email protected], (c) Prof G Nagarjuna > [email protected] (d) Prof Rahul De [email protected] These > professors could be contacted to verify and ascertain the issues > highlighted herein, and solicit suggestions to overcome the > shortcomings. > > My deepest regards, > CK Raju, > IIT Kharagpur 721302 > _______________________________________________ > network mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in -- Rgds JTD _______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
