Techno Social Innovation makes its way in rural India

By Mr. G M Sastry

When I visited Katuru (very near to my native place Vuyyuru) on 4th Nov 2012 for the water quality testing project, I could notice two totally contrast and  opposite things- exactly situated opposite to each other. One is old and ancient abandoned and dilapidated house.

Just opposite to the above building, a modern technological phenomenon aiding the welfare schemes of the government aimed at senior citizens and other welfare beneficiaries was happening every month. It took me literally by surprise when I saw what was happening.

Opposite to the old abandoned house is the Grampanchayt office/Secretariat of Katuru. On that day (4 Nov), the Gramsevika entered the premises of GP secretariat and several senior citizens, widows,  were waiting along with some specially abled/challenged. From her handbag, she took out a small machine and placed it on the old table in the GP office. On the side of the machine, she placed her mobile.

                                                                

One by one the senior citizens started showing their id cards. She fed the id no into the mobile and immediately the senior citizen’s details are retrieved by the mobile including his/her photo and other details. She pushed some other buttons on the mobile for further verification. Then she asked the beneficiary to put his/her fingers on the small machine for scanning. It took less than a minute to scan the fingerprint and then match with bio-metric database. Once it was approved by the system, the small machine printed out the receipt in duplicate. One copy was handed over to the person along with Rs 200 from the handbag of the Gramsevika.

All this happened in less than may be 4 to 5 minutes. There was a good crowd before the gramsevika. Normally it happens in the frist week of a month for about 4 days. For those persons, who are identified for the pension scheme and cannot come to the GP secretariat/common place, the Gramsevika goes to their house, completes the formalities and distributes the cash!

Modern technology aiding the welfare schemes aimed at old/senior people!

I am not opening up a debate whether welfare pension is good or not or the amount of Rs 200 is sufficient or not. Simply amazed by the usage of the technology. Of course the next step would be cash transfers to the pensioner’s bank accounts if the proposed financial inclusion in rural areas is not a mirage!

Technology can be effectively used by harnessing its true potential and thus to reduce the side effects of able workers’ migration to urban areas on their dependant senior family members, who are not productive by modern understanding!

May be this is called social innovation!

As Shared by Mr. G M Sastry , http://in.linkedin.com/in/gmsastry

Email:  gmsastryhyd@gmail.com

 

 

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Free culture for a free society

On January 31, 2011, there was an unusual meeting at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala. The participants were a group of young people, some of them activists of the Free Software movement in Kerala, people who were contributing to free software or to localising free software in Malayalam. Some were interested in animation, and one or two of them had experience in 3D animation. What brought this group together was a project that had been launched a few months earlier. The project was to create a 3D animation movie as a community effort using Blender and other free software. 

Blender is a piece of software for 3D modelling, animation and non-linear editing. Proprietary software to begin with, when the company found the going tough it was taken over by a group that included its developers and users who liked the software. They released it under the GNU General Public Licence, which made it free software that anyone could download and use. 

The Blender Foundation that was created to maintain the software subsequently got animators together to create three short animation films -- Elephant's Dream, Big Buck Bunny,and Sintel -- that are available for anyone to download. 

While the objective of the Blender Foundation was to demonstrate the software’s capabilities, the objective of the young enthusiasts who got together in Calicut (now known as Kozhikode) was to show that cultural products like films can be created by a community and distributed freely -- something that’s contrary to the existing paradigm of culture being viewed as an industry and a means to making profit. The project is called ‘Chamba’, following the practice started by the Blender Foundation of naming their free movie projects after fruits. It was started at the suggestion of a young veteran of free software, Praveen, who also gave it its name. Details of the project can be found at http://www.chambaproject.in.

Readers may wonder about the purpose of such an exercise. Creating a movie involves a lot of effort by a number of people, expertise, and monetary investment. If the product is distributed free, how will the money be recovered? And with little chance of the money being recovered, who is going to invest in the first place?

It’s understandable for people to consider the idea wildly Utopian. But such ideas are a sign of the changing times. We are in an age when products that used to be made by companies in pursuit of profit are increasingly being created by groups of individuals for the fun of it. Free Software and Wikipedia are very good examples.

Read in detail:  http://infochangeindia.org/technology/analysis/free-culture-for-a-free-society.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

The people’s voice: CGNet Swara community radio on mobile phone

Every citizen in this country has a right to be heard. But what happens when you live in an area where no mainstream media organisation bothers to penetrate, and when you speak a language no media organisation knows or understands? CGNet Swara uses mobile telephony to break through the wall of silence in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh.

The trendy young may see the mobile phone as a fashion accessory and use it as a means to yammer endlessly with friends, but in the tribal belt of Chhattisgarh, the technology is being put to a very different and infinitely more meaningful use.

One of the main problems with getting news from or to the many remote areas of the country is that mainstream media has little interest in these areas and, as in the case of tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, there is no publication, TV channel or radio in the local language (All India Radio does not broadcast in any tribal language including Gondi which is spoken by 2.7 million inhabitants of the area). All of this makes it difficult to get news from, about, or to the local population.

CGNet Swara came up with an obvious but novel way around this problem. Get local people – citizen-journalists basically -- to speak about their problems and issues, and to listen to what others have to say, via the mobile phone, which has a 50-60% penetration in the country.

Started in February 2010, CGNet Swara could be described as community radio on mobile phone. “It works on the principle that journalism is everybody’s business and every citizen should also be a citizen journalist. Though we trained 33 tribals in a three-day training session in February to use Swara, we do not know who the reporters are now (most of them are not trained by us),” says Shubhranshu Choudahry who set up CGNet Swara with technical help from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as part of a fellowship project supported by Knight International.

As a reporter himself and a native of Chhattisgarh, Choudahry was familiar with–and concerned about-- the lack of news in and out of the region. “A majority of the people in this area are illiterate and very poor so they cannot buy a newspaper (there is no newspaper in their language anyway) and a majority do not have electricity at home so they cannot have TV. All India Radio talks about Obama and Manmohan Singh in Hindi whereas people want to hear what is happening around them in their own language, which CGnet Swara is doing.”

The modus operandi is quite simple. A citizen journalist – which basically means anyone who has a story to share – gives a missed call to the mobile number 080-41137280 and the server will call back for the caller to listen to or record her message or story in any language/dialect. The information is verified and translated by moderators to check for authenticity and disseminated via SMSes and www.cgnetswara.org

The CGNet website shows that when the voice of the people is heard, there is an impact. Teachers of a school in Dantewada got their salaries after a report was circulated about tardiness in payment of salaries; government officials took note of complaints on pollution of a sponge iron factory in Bastar; a liquor shop that opened in front of a school in Bijapur town was shifted out on the orders of the Collector who heard the complaint over Swara. Earlier attempts to shift the shop had ended with the school being ordered to move.

In fact, a sampling of small news items on the website looks pretty much like the city page of any mainstream newspaper, highlighting the acts of omission and commission of the authorities: Irregularity in the PDS in Toynar Bijapur, NREGA workers not paid for six months, the only teacher in a village being used for census duty, rice meant for the poor being captured by middlemen, 236 schools closed in Bijapur district for four years, an interview with a person beaten up by drunken policemen.

Bhan Sahu, one of the most active women reporters, reported on children employed and underpaid in tendu leaf collection (Unicef has that report), and a live report from a public hearing for SKS power plant in Kharsia, Raigarh, noted pertinently that 1,500 policemen were present at what was supposed to be a jan sunwai or people’s hearing.

“The reason authorities have reacted positively in some cases is because after the stories are sent out on CGnet Swara we put a link of the story on our CGnet discussion forum with the number and other details of the concerned authorities and people start calling those officers from all over India. But at the same time we have got reactions like ‘We cannot afford a loose cannon like this service in a state which is at war with insurgents,’ coming from a senior police officer in the state capital, Raipur,” says Choudahry.

The war zone is CGNet Swara’s backyard but it is largely off-limits to most news media that has, perforce, to accept government sources of information. CGNet is an alternative source (even though Choudahry says only 5% of the reporting has anything to do with the insurgency), and as grassroots as you can get as it is the people themselves who tell their stories. Journalists who dare not venture into the Red Corridor might benefit by putting CGNet Swara on speed dial.

Prakash Korram, an activist with Ekta Parishad, was picked up by the police and charged for possessing a gun and being a Maoist, and severely beaten up several times while in police custody. The police denied to his wife and colleagues that he had been arrested and charged. His version of what happened to him only became public when his colleague Agnu Sahu and others persisted with their search for him and finally met him in Kanker jail and put his story up on CGNet Swara. If there’s scepticism of his side of the story, at least it has been told.

In the same way, Gujjo Bai, sarpanch of Gumiapal, informed anyone who wanted to listen, through a reporter from CGNet Swara, that the two Maoists police claimed to have killed in an ‘encounter’ in her village were actually innocent villagers who were taken from their homes which were later burnt. The police officers who did the killing were later among those ambushed by Maoists while travelling in a bus and 31 people were killed in the incident including 15 civilians. Maoists issued a statement saying the killing was in revenge for the killing of two innocents. Because it became a big story, journalists visited the village and met the sarpanch to hear her side of the story.

Knowledge is power and a well-informed tribal population is not exactly what the police or government want to see in a population it has long exploited. Many mainstream publications carried the story of Lingamram Kodopi who police claim was behind the “July 6 Maoist attack on Congress leader Avdesh Singh Gautam’s house and the Kuakonda Police Station in Bastar and had undergone militant training in Gujarat and New Delhi, and is currently doing a media-related course in the Capital” (Indiaexpress.com, July 12, 2010).

“Linga is one of the tribal boys we helped get admission in a media school in Noida. He could be the first trained tribal journalist from that part of the world who could have written stories about his own home/community which could have helped us understand the problem and maybe even solve it,” says Shubhranshu Choudahry. The police have backed down a little and Linga has resumed his studies, but the content of the FIR against him is still unknown.

Songs and poems, too, are broadcast, something rare for indigenous people whose language and culture is generally ignored. CGNet has broadcast traditional Bastar music, Adivasi songs, a Gondi song by an anti-displacement activist in Kanha national park, a song by a child, Sudip Kumar, on the anti-liquor campaign, and Budhan Mehsram, a dalit Pandvani singer, who is changing Pandvani from its traditional form of singing about the Mahabharat to singing songs on local contemporary issues.

The CGNet Swara method is not expensive so can it be easily replicated? “It can be replicated in any part of the world where the situation is similar,” says Choudahry. “The software was developed in open source which is already on the internet. So anybody who wants to use it can do so. We have got many requests to duplicate it. The State Department in the US wants to use it in Afghanistan. UNDP is looking at it to see if they can use it to monitor the Millennium Development Goals (as this technology is two-way unlike radio which is just one way). We have got many requests from India and Africa. We ourselves want to take this experiment all over central India soon. Then the service will be called Central Gondwana Network Swara (instead of Chhattisgarh NetSwara).”

Source: http://infochangeindia.org/201008248475/Technology/Stories-of-change/The-people-s-voice.html


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) invites proposals Technology Intervention for Elderly – TIE

Government of India ,Department of Science and Technology Call S&T based Proposals for managing issues related to elderly population (Technology Intervention for Elderly – TIE).


The Department of Science and Technology (DST) invites proposals on focused initiatives for S&T interventions to benefit of elderly population in the country. The Proposals should focus on R&D for technological solutions with multidisciplinary approach to ameliorate problems and improve quality of life of the elderly population in both rural and urban areas.

Some challenges identified for providing S&T solutions are:
1. Development of assistive devices required by the elderly population in the urban/semi-urban/rural areas characterized by:
• Cost effective and affordable by elderly of different segments in society
• Inclusive designs
• Potential for commercialization.

2. Field testing of newly developed technology for acceptance evaluation and further adaptation.

3. Modulation of already existing technology specific for use of elderly to suit Indian conditions.

4. Development of technology package for healthcare of elderly to include preventive care in the area of:
• Area specific nutritional package
• Cost effective visual/hearing aids
• Cost effective dentures/dental implants, etc
• Documentation and validation of traditional health practices for elderly in codified Indian health system
• Cognitive support for elderly (Alzheimer/Parkinson/Dementia, etc.).

5. Safe Kitchens for elderly.

Some indicative technology areas are given below:
• Assistive devices for improving functionality, cognitive and assisted safety measures, excretion defects and related issues.
• Assistive device for various form of monitoring devices/non-invasive measuring devices/systems (injury preventions, blood parameters for non-communicable diseases, standing and balance training).
• Assistive devices for frequently occurring muscular-skeletal problems such as osteoarthritis of knee, ankle joints and the osteoporosis.
• Special devices/footwear for diabetic foot and care, biosensors for clinical diagnosis, automated pill box and methods for learning and analyzing computer signals of medical changes.
• Devices/programmes for fitness of elderly.
• Simple controlled devices for operating household devices.


In addition to the above themes, other novel/innovative idea/concept related to enablement and comforts of Elderly people in the country are welcome.

Eligibility criteria: Projects can be undertaken by academic/R&D institutions, NGOs. Collaborative projects between Institutions, Industry and NGOs working in the area of the elderly are encouraged. Proposals covering Areas of social sciences are not under the purview of this programme.

Project proposals (10 hard copies and 1 soft copy) can be submitted in the prescribed format available on the Website: www.scienceandsociety-dst.org to the address mentioned below.

HEAD
Science for Equity, Empowerment and Development Division (SEED)
Department of Science and Technology, Technology Bhavan,
New Mehrauli Road,
New Delhi 110 016
Tel: 011-2659 0339, e-mail: headseedglp@gmail.com)

The envelope should be subscribed as ‘Proposal Under Tie-Programme’. The proposals can be submitted throughout the year. Proposals received up to 31 July 2010 can be considered for evaluation in the next PAMC meeting.


For further information contact:
In-charge TIE-Programme, Science for Equity, Empowerment and Development
Division (SEED), Department of Science and Technology,
Technology Bhavan,
New Mehrauli Road,
New Delhi
110 016 (usha.dixit@nic.in , phone: 011-2659 0322).


Source: The Times of India, Mumbai Edition dt.29th May 2010 pg.24





Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Closing the Digital Divide for Those with Disabilities

"Mobile Ability: The Transformational Impact of Wireless Innovation for People with Disabilities - A Report"

In each of our modern lives, broadband holds a pivotal key to enhancing economic opportunities, expanding access to education, improving our health and participating in civil society. Nowhere is this potential more powerfully on display than at the intersection of broadband and mobility. And, arguably no community has put this nearly limitless potential to more transformational use in their daily lives than the 1 in 5 Americans who, today, are living with disabilities.

From leading wireless carriers to devoted garage innovators, the mobile innovation community is embracing the true spirit of mobile broadband’s much-touted promise to bring opportunity and quality of life enhancements to all Americans. From people with disabilities who are finding innovative uses for connected smartphones and mainstream mobile applications to technologists who are thinking and creating for the unique needs of specific communities, profound innovation is underway today.

This report is intended as a celebration of this innovation—and an exploration of the common elements, values and commitments that can ensure it is continually nurtured. Twenty years ago, our nation made an extraordinary commitment to accessibility and opportunity in passing the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Wireless grew up in this era. And, today, it is ushering in a second wave of quality of life advances and inclusiveness for 54 million Americans with disabilities.

From voice-activated GPS technology that can guide a blind person down the street , to access to closed captioned video on the go, to the fact that kids with disabilities now can go to school with smartphones in their pockets rather than large, cumbersome assistive devices, these innovations reflect awe-inspiring progress. Equally encouraging is the certain fact that we have barely scratched the surface of what mobile innovation can do to expand the horizons and grow the range of opportunities available to this community.

On behalf of the Mobile Future community, we thank the organizations and technologists who contributed their insights to the development of this report. It is our hope that this paper reflects just one small contribution to a growing conversation and further exploration around unlocking opportunities in the digital/mobile age.

With the release of its National Broadband Plan and subsequent report on broadband for people with disabilities, the Federal Communications Commission is signaling its own commitment to encouraging these life-changing innovations. At this important juncture, we offer this paper to help inform both great products and meaningful policy.


Jonathan Spalter
Chairman
Mobile Future


Read Full Report: http://mobfut.3cdn.net/07bf12aba705fafb8f_fym6bat6i.pdf

Source: http://www.mobilefuture.org/content/pages/mobile_ability

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

How to create Blog

In response to a ProPoor reader’s request for information on how to set up a blog for their NGO, we are providing this information for the entire ProPoor community.

There are many FREE blog publishing platforms that an NGO may choose depending on the purpose of the blog.

A few options:

· Blogger.com: https://www.blogger.com/start

· Wordpress.com: http://wordpress.com/

· Blog.com: http://blog.com/

Each of these blog sites will have tutorials and videos that will show you how to get started in creating your own blog.

In short, the steps to create a blog include:

1. Sign up for an account with one of the blog sites.

2. Select a name and address (URL) for your blog.

3. Select a theme for your blog. You can change the theme for your blog at any time. If you would like to customize your blog, choose a blog site that offers customizable themes.

4. Select “gadgets” for your blog. This can include polls, recent posts, blogrolls (links to other blogs or websites), etc.

5. Start your blog by uploading posts, photographs and videos.

If you are interested in creating a free website, you may do so at CFSites:http://www.cfsites.org/

Posted By ProPoor on Feb 26, 2010


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Indian Govt to bring amendments in legislation for the disabled

Keeping in view the needs of the physically challenged in the changing times, the government is planning to introduce amendments in the legislation related to protection of their rights in budget session of Parliament.

Government will introduce amendments in the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik said on Monday.

"We are harmonising the legislation and there will be comprehensive amendment in it keeping in mind the needs of the disabled persons with changing times. Currently dialogue is going on with concerned stakeholders on these changes, which we will bring in the next session of Parliament," he said.

Wasnik was speaking on the occasion of the unveiling of the ministry's "fully accessible" website, which was launched by Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Prithviraj Chavan.

The Ministry is the first in the Union Cabinet to have come out with a website which can be fully accessed by persons with physical disabilities.

"Since ours is the nodal ministry looking after welfare of the physically challenged, I would request all my cabinet colleagues to make websites of their respective ministries fully accessible for the physically challenged," Wasnik said.

He said the site will soon be available in Hindi too.

Source:http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/Govt-to-bring-amendments-in-legislation-for-the-disabled/Article1-494113.aspx

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

See Silver Innings activity pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sailesh2000_2000/


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

FOSS (free and open source software) for the comman man

The Maharashtra government recently announced a MOU with Microsoft Corporation (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/) to enhance the adoption of information, communication and technology in schools across the state. Government schoolteachers will be trained exclusively on its software products, with the government paying part of the training costs. Public funds will thus be used to promote a monopoly’s proprietary products, whereas the public good could be better served by training teachers on available equivalent FOSS (free and open source software) applications that are freely shareable. I also wish to debunk the popular impression among bureaucrats that they need to be neutral regarding proprietary software and FOSS, for FOSS is not merely a technology issue it has significant implications for equity and democracy in society.

The community and the corporate

Imagine a village that has a drinking water shortage. While there is a shop in the village that sells bottled (‘mineral’) water, it is obviously not within the reach of most villagers. A group of villagers has come together to dig a public tank that will provide water to all, treating it as a community resource. How should the government support the effort? Imagine if the government were to tell the villagers that it would need to be equidistant between the two sources of water -- the public tank and the bottled water -- and could not ‘discriminate’ between the two in providing its support. This would clearly be anti-people and unacceptable.

In actual practice too, government would support the community creation of public resources. Under the landmark National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) aimed at providing employment, the creation and maintenance of public waterbodies is a popular project. Government is unlikely to provide any direct support to the sale of bottled water, other than of course to regulate its sale. While the shop and the bottled water it sells do have their place in society there is little ambiguity that the government will support and participate in the community effort to provide clean drinking water through public tanks, and that it cannot take a ‘neutral’ stand on the two sources of drinking water.

Now let’s take the case of software, the basic resource that runs computers and the Internet and is at the core of information technology. On the one hand, we have proprietary software that is made available for ‘use’ on a ‘per use royalty’ basis. For every copy of the software purchased, a licence fee has to be paid. The buyer cannot make copies of the software (making copies is easy in the case of digital goods like software), even for his own use in multiple computers. On the other hand, we have free and open source software (FOSS, for short) which guarantees four freedoms:

1 Freedom to use the software.

2 Freedom to study the software (since the actual software program or source codeis publicly made available).

3 Freedom to modify.

4 Freedom to share/distribute.

Proprietary software does not provide the last three freedoms; the seller usually hides the source code. The word ‘free’in FOSS refers to these four freedoms, not to the cost being nil, although FOSS applications are often also available at no cost as they can be freely shared. Hence, like the community pond, FOSS is created by the people (produced by a community of software developers across the world volunteering their services for the public good), of the people (owned by society at large, not by private entities) and for the people (distributed freely to maximise public welfare).

Since FOSS applications are developed and maintained by communities of software developers working for the public good, their efforts require societal support, especially that of government. Governments must clearly support and adopt FOSS in order to promote the equitable and democratic spread of ICT.

Software as the building blocks of our information society

Comparing software to drinking water may strike one as a little far-fetched. But it is widely accepted that we live in an increasingly digital world in which software plays a critical role, whether in booking train tickets, banking, using search engines to get specific information, communicating with friends, use of the Internet by political parties and NGOs for their campaigns, participation of individuals in virtual professional and social networks, accessing public services over the Internet, etc. Software structures our social interactions and is increasingly important in knowledge-creation; hence its free and easy availability becomes essential to society. This would be even truer of software that runs personal computers -- our gateways to the information world. It’s in recognition of this that the Indian government has a programme (common service centres) that aims to provide Internet access through computers to 250,000 villages.

Governments therefore cannot afford to treat software as a mere technology issue and be ‘neutral’ to the dichotomies of proprietary applications and FOSS, ignoring their social, political, and economic dimensions.

There have been sporadic efforts by government and public institutions like NIC (which develops software for governments, often as FOSS), NRCFOSS (which works with educational institutions to adopt FOSS), CDAC (which has released GNU/Linux operating system distribution and the Open Office suite in Indian languages) to adopt and promote FOSS in India. The department of IT, Government of India, recently released ‘Draft Open Standards for eGovernance’, which provides an enabling environment for FOSS and emphasises free and open public standards. However, unlike many countries that have clearly declared national policies supporting the adoption of FOSS, India still has to take a firm stand on the issue.

Political parties

Political party support for FOSS is important as it can shift governments from their current ambivalent stand. Like most individuals and institutions, political parties have not put FOSS on their agenda, viewing software as largely an esoteric technology issue. The recent general elections made a break with this, with parties on both the left and right end of the political spectrum -- namely the CPM and the BJP -- announcing their support for FOSS. This is an appreciation not merely of the technical advantages of FOSS but also of the immense value for society from the principles of open and collaborative creation of knowledge and its critical role in a democracy.

The Indian left is a traditional supporter of FOSS. The Kerala government employs FOSS and even has a comprehensive policy for the adoption of FOSS across all public enterprises. The IT@Schools programme, which is ahead of similar attempts elsewhere in the country, is fully based on FOSS. The government also acknowledges that use of FOSS has saved Kerala crores of rupees and helped spread ICT in the state. The CPM’s election manifesto clearly supports “promoting FOSS and other such new technologies which are free from monopoly ownership…”.

Kerala and FOSS

The nature of adoption of FOSS in Kerala is worthy of emulation. It has been a participatory process involving teachers unions and civil society organisations collaborating with the state government. The actual ICT training has been taken up by teacher-training institutions themselves which are responsible for building the capacities of a large number of teachers within the government system. This ‘integrated’ model of ICT training has led to it becoming deeply embedded within the education system. Other states use the ‘outsourcing’ model in which the training of teachers and students is taken up by technology vendors whose core competency is not education. Here, even after years of hand-holding under public-private partnership models, most teachers view the programme as external to the school; it therefore does not become institutionalised. This is unfortunate as the public education system has strong teacher education structures at the district, block and cluster levels. Unlike Kerala, other states have not used these to build the capacities of teachers to use computers and integrate computer-aided learning into the mainstream learning process at schools.

Increasingly, the growth and development of language will depend on its digital presence. The dominance of English has increased since most knowledge on the Internet is in that language. For example, the popular ‘free’ encyclopaedia on the Internet -- Wikipedia -- has more than 27 lakh articles in English whereas Hindi has around 25,000! FOSS has helped the spread of ‘Malayalam computing’ in Kerala, as local enterprises and schools become more familiar with FOSS applications and start making software modifications and extensions. FOSS is also slowly helping develop FOSS-based enterprises in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition party in the last and current Parliament, released an IT ‘vision document’as part of its election campaign. The document suggests that the government standardise open standardsand open sourcesoftware. The document also recognises the role of FOSS in active promotion of the domestic IT industry. Overall, the document seeks a departure from the current largely market-driven investment by providing access to the nascent information society, to public policy, a public investment-driven one which seeks universal access and participation, with special provisions for the marginalised. The document also emphasises the role of such investments in providing socio-economic impetus in the current recessionary scenario.

The Congress manifesto, on the other hand, made no mention of FOSS and was itself in the .doc format which is a proprietary format, meaning information on this format is not publicly available. When a society uses a proprietary format to store its own knowledge, it can be dangerous. If the vendor is not available or willing to support the specific proprietary format (which happens, as newer releases of software and document formats are made available by the same vendor), the knowledge and cultural resources of society, which belong to everyone, are lost. Also, the use of proprietary formats often compels users to buy the next software upgrade even if they do not need it, simply because older applications do not open the document formats of newer versions.

It is a moot question whether forcing voters to buy expensive proprietary software to read its manifesto is aligned to the party’s espoused support for the aam-aadmi!

Bureaucracy

This kind of indifference is also typical of bureaucrats in most states. Bureaucrats, especially those in the IT or e-governance ministries, espouse ‘neutrality’ between FOSS and proprietary software even though many of them accept the fact that governments could save crores of rupees by adopting FOSS at least on the large number of personal computers they buy. They also insist that users in government departments should ‘choose’ what they are ‘comfortable with’. It is obvious that ‘comfort’ comes primarily from usage, and, being conditioned to proprietary software, users may find FOSS alternatives difficult at first. In a developing country, spending crores of rupees of public funds on proprietary software when FOSS equivalents are freely available is an avoidable waste and a clear violation of the ‘least cost’ principle that governments usually follow in their procurements.

A second kind of ‘neutral’ response from bureaucracy is to ask FOSS supporters to provide software on the same terms as do proprietary software vendors. Typically, the bureaucrat will demand the same kind of support across the entire state as the large technology vendor provides, saying: “X company can provide free training for the next one year; what can you do?” The problem with this expectation is that while the proprietary software vendor will have the necessary resources (acquired through software licence fees) to make support available immediately, it is harder for the other side to comply.

Once it is set up, though, FOSS provides benefits that are exponentially greater than the cost of establishment. The system has immense economic (both in terms of reduced software procurement and support costs and in promoting the establishment of FOSS SMEs --small and medium enterprises -- that provide local employment and entrepreneurship), social (supporting local collaborations) and political (reducing government dependence on specific vendors, many of whom are transnational) benefits. Kerala has consciously opted for this route of creating a FOSS environment and is already benefiting from both lower costs of setting up ICT infrastructure and spawning local SMEs that use FOSS.

Support to small-scale industry

Since FOSS-based enterprises do not license software but provide training and support services, they tend to be much smaller than proprietary companies that earn significant licence fees. While India’s policy has always been to support small and medium enterprises and give them preferential treatment over large industries, in the case of software government tenders often impose huge minimum limits of turnover which favour large companies over SMEs. Such high floor limits are inequitable and unjust; it is the government’s responsibility to promote FOSS SMEs and regulate restrictive trade practices that large technology monopolies indulge in with impunity (such as ‘persuading’ hardware companies to bundle only their software products with the hardware, ‘dumping’ their software at low or zero prices when they fear competition from FOSS). The irony is that the same bureaucrat who strongly supports community pond-building/maintenance as a secretary in the panchayati raj department, or favours small-scale industry as a secretary in the industries department, will insist on remaining neutral when it comes to proprietary software and FOSS, as IT or e-governance department secretary, ignoring the government’s duty in protecting the common good.

Bottlenecks in the adoption of FOSS

Our own research efforts indicate two bottlenecks in the adoption of FOSS. The first is basic awareness about FOSS itself. Though many people have heard of Linux, most technology users are unaware of the philosophy behind FOSS, its practical benefits and the various FOSS alternatives available today. The government therefore needs to popularise the adoption of FOSS, which can be done by supporting FOSS awareness and promotion campaigns just as there are government campaigns for polio vaccinations or literacy or consumer rights. FOSS is basically public software, and itneeds public/governmental support as much as public health and public education do.

The second obstacle is the apprehension that FOSS represents naïve idealism and does not work at a practical level. While it is true that FOSS applications are not available in all areas, requiring some governments to procure proprietary software, this is not the case with respect to most basic software applications including those that are on personal computers. Large organisations in the public and private sectors use FOSS. LIC has been using a GNU/Linux operating system for years, and several large banks like ICICI Bank are employing Open Office. A number of engineering colleges too use the GNU/Linux operating system and FOSS applications as these may be studied and customised by students in computer science programs. FOSS applications are used in several high-end applications as well, and most Internet applications are powered by the FOSS quartet ‘LAMP’ (Linux operating system/Apache Web Server/MySQL database/PHP scripting language). Millions of people use GNU/Linux (Ubuntu is becoming more and more popular) and Open Office for their desktops, instead of proprietary alternatives. Apart from the basic office automation software, Ubuntu GNU/Linux (and other GNU/Linux distributions) comes bundled with thousands of FOSS applications that are not available freely with proprietary operating systems, such as those for image editing, audio-video editing, PDF file editing, etc.

With regard to the second apprehension, the adoption of FOSS in the public sector would help break the myth of ‘non-usability’ and encourage more people to adopt it. For a start, all government websites could be developed in a way that they can be accessed by FOSS web browsers without any problem (in many cases, government websites work well only with Microsoft Internet Explorer which is a proprietary software application). Using document formats that are not proprietary would also support greater use of FOSS applications. Government should stipulate FOSS in their computer procurements and IT projects, acquire the source code and release it as FOSS to society. FOSS is not only a technical or technology issue, it is also a political one. Political parties seeking to represent people’s aspirations and interests must come out clearly in favour of adopting and promoting FOSS. Bureaucrats in the IT, e-governance and other ministries must use the same principles in their technology policies as they do in other developmental spaces, and promote FOSS on socio-political and economic grounds.

By Gurumurthy Kasinathan is with IT for Change, an NGO in Special Consultative Status with United Nations’ Economic and Social Council. He uses the following FOSS applications on his computer:

Ubuntu GNU/Linux 8.04 (operating system). Open Office 3.1.0 (office automation). Mozilla Firefox 3.0.10 (web browser). Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (email client). VLC player (media player), GIMP image editor ( photo editing),PDFEdit 0.3.2 (PDF editing, which is normally not available on Windows machines), pidgin (chatting), K3B (burning CDs and DVDs) etc.

For more information on the sociocultural, political and pedagogical dimensions to FOSS, visit www.PublicSoftware.in.)

Source:http://infochangeindia.org/200911038011/Technology/Analysis/FOSS-for-the-people.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

MyKartavya, an Volunteerism initiative by NASSCOM Foundation

Volunteerism has played an instrumental role in the development & progress of communities all around the globe. MyKartavya, an initiative by NASSCOM Foundation, not only connects you to a wide spectrum of volunteering opportunities, but also helps you manage & evaluate your efforts!

Why Volunteer?

We all have an obligation, a duty or responsibility towards ourselves, our family, our organization - but what about our communities, our nation, our society? As a part of today's corporate India, we are among the most talented & privileged! So help transform India and drive it closer towards a vision of being an inclusive, prosperous & equitable. Get involved in the development of your nation and yourself by volunteering!

As an Employee:

• Get a sense of achievement as your efforts pay off with the progress of the NGO you get involved with
• Develop new skills & add value to your profile - Employers give high value to those with volunteering hours on their resume
• Be a part of your community - Volunteering is about helping others &creating an impact
• Meet diverse people - More the merrier!

As a Company:

• Track, monitor & evaluate impact
• Increase efficiency in promoting volunteering, managing registration & event evaluation
• Recruit, retain and engage top talent employees (Strong CSR & volunteer program helps!)
• Enhance Brand Reputation - Serving in your community raises the profile of your company

MyKartavya does not require a unique degree or prior experience - but only a willingness to help! Learn new skills such as leadership and management, while enhancing the ones you have. Experience the satisfaction of sharing your knowledge. Call your friends, family, and coworkers and get involved - it will forever change the person you are.

To enroll your organization, write to myk@nasscomfoundation.org

Website:
https://www.mykartavya.com/handlers/login.aph


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Rural India still deprived

October 24 is observed as the World Development Information Day across the globe with the objective of drawing people's attention towards development problems.

But, most of the people, particularly in Varanasi are unaware about it and its importance. The main aim of World Development Information Day is to inform and motivate young people vital development issues that directly affect the life of people particularly in rural areas.

Agriculture, which is concentrated in rural India, is the mainstay of the Indian economy. According to government report, agriculture and allied sectors contribute nearly 22 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP of India), while about 65-70 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

But, it is unfortunate to know that farmers have to struggle hard for basic amenities like health care, agricultural services, seed/fertiliser procurement facility and veterinary services. It is also a startling fact that the girls living in 1010 villages in the district have to travel over five kilometres to get secondary education because there is no such facility in these villages. Similarly the girl students of upper primary of 399 villages have to cover this distance to attend the schools.

According to the statistics of the district records, the district has 1289 villages in eight development blocks including Baragaon, Cholapur, Chiraigaon, Araziline, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Pindra, Harahua and Sevapuri. The policy draft of the ministry of rural development clearly mentions that the rural development implies both the economic betterment of people and greater social transformation. In order to provide the rural people with better prospects for economic development, increased participation of people in the rural development programmes, decentralisation of planning, better enforcement of land reforms and greater access to credit are envisaged. To achieve this target there are many schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, Rural Housing, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and National Social Assistance Programme.

But, reality is that the rural folk are still a deprived section of the society. The records show that the agricultural mandis are over five km from 1180 villages while the native of 676 villages have to cover long distance to reach veterinary hospitals for the treatment of their livestock.

Similarly the natives of 578 villages have to cover a distance of over five km for health care facility in primary or community health centres. The cooperative agriculture and rural development banks are over 5km from 1239 villages while the farmers of 1204 villages have to travel such distance to reach selling/purchasing cooperative committees.

A number of villagers have also to travel far for amenities like cold storage, post office and public telephone in this age of information technology.


Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Rural-India-still-deprived/articleshow/5157868.cms



Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.