Battle Royale on the Govt Corridors

While open source versus proprietary might be old news; it still
manages to raise sufficient dust to effect debates and discussions from
boardroom to parliaments. So, when CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury
declared his unstinted support for open-source, not many eyebrows were raised.
After all politicians are known to be ficklefriend today, foe tomorrow.

Yet, the sand indeed seems to be shifting. Not many would have
been surprised at seeing West Bengal and Kerala canoodling the penguin. Simple
logicthe Left was influencing the way governments went in the Left-run
states. But the biggest surprise of the year has been the state of Tamil Nadu.
With no real ideological baggage, Tamil Nadu is indeed a surprise victory for
open source enthusiasts. Could it be that finally, business case is prevailing
over dogmas? If indeed that is so, the Giant from Redmond has a thing or two to
fret over.

Over the last many years, Microsoft has enjoyed complete
monopoly in the government space, much like it does in the consumer space. Yet,
dynamics between the two are quite different and can be gauged by the way
Microsofts stance has evolved over the years. A couple of years back, Steve
Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, had threatened that Asian governments using Linux could
be sued for IP violations. He had claimed that Linux violated more than 228
Microsoft patents, and governments would have a tough time. Not many took him
seriously. So, the company took a reverse track and literally shook hands with
the devil, by aligning with Novell. After all, if you cant beat them, co-opt
them.

It is still time before a winner is decided, but as of now,
Microsoft has taken a blow or two from the Penguin, especially in India. Though
the current penetration is lowand not as rosy as in the US where Linux is
breathing down Windows 2000s neckit is estimated that Linux will have
substantial growth in India, and the government is expected to be the key
driver.

While at present Microsoft clearly rules, the penguin has
managed to churn increasing interest at the state level clinching some major
deals. State governments have begun to seriously consider Linux as an option
(and these are not Left-aligned ones).

The year saw three states charting out a roadmap toward
migrating to the Linux platform. The year was also significant as the first ever
partnership between an open source company (Novell) and a proprietary software
company (Microsoft) came in to existence, leading critics to believe that
Microsoft finally is recognizing the growing prowess of the free and open
software.

Left Rhetoric

As the only two Left-ruled states, Kerala and West Bengal, have been the
early votaries and adopters of Linux, the India story has spice in it. Not to
mention the Left parties, the largest allies of the UPA-led alliance at the
center, would like to put things in a different perspective as opposed to the
commonly held notion of the Left being on an ideological war with software
behemoth, Microsoft.

CPI (M) Member of Parliament and the partys central committee
member Nilotpal Basu, clarifies, "It is not a question of policy. Microsoft
might have to be used at some places, but our position is clear on this. The
push has to come from the government as open source provides plenty of
flexibility." Basu adds, "we do not favor any particular corporate, as
what ultimately matters is satisfaction of the users, and the fact that software
should be available abundantly."

Nevertheless, overtones of ideological skirmish were visible as
Kerala announced its unequivocal migration to Linux last year in government run
schools. While announcing its plans to migrate to Linux, the state government
clearly stated that its aim was "to break the US software giant, Microsofts,
dominance in these schools." Ironically, the move had come after two weeks
of rattling investors by banning Coke and Pepsi sales. The education minister of
Kerala, MA Baby had said that his government would promote the use of
open-source Linux operating systems along with Microsoft in high schools.
"We are against monopolies of multinational companies in any sector,"
he was quoted as saying. But "ideologically I support Linux and free open
operating systems for IT-enabled education in schools," he added.

Underlining the importance of the Kerala market for open source
companies, Red Hat had signed an MoU with the state government for supporting
Keralas development of open-source software.

On the other hand, West Bengal too seems to be excited about
switching applications on to Linux. Vivek Bharadwaj, special secretary,
government of West Bengal says, "Whatever new applications we build, are
going to be on Linux and the others too will be migrated to Linux. There are
going to be some areas where proprietary software will still be in use, but now
most of the purchases are being done on open source. So yes, we are encouraging
vendors to go for open source."

Bharadwaj, however, chooses to call the state governments
decision "practical and not populace." He adds, "This is not
about ideology, it makes more sense to go the Linux way, and its not just
cost but also security, apart from viruses, which will be an added
advantage." West Bengal has set up an institution with funds allocated up
to the tune of Rs 2 crore to promote building open source applications.

Meanwhile, all that Microsoft wants is a fair chance.
"While the message from the state government in Kerala is clear to go on
the open source platform, but doors are not shut for Microsoft," says Rohit
Kumar, country head, Public Sector, Microsoft. He claims that more than 75%
applications in Kerala still run on the Windows platform. However, he says,
"Microsoft does not have updates on which all applications are being
migrated to Linux of the total applications run on the Windows platform
currently. All we ask for is a fair chance to prove our worth. Nothing
more," states Kumar.

Tamil Nadu Closes the Window?

Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) has opted for open source and
is rolling out SuSe Linux Enterprise across 30,000 desktops and 1,880 servers in
the states schools. ELCOT itself migrated its entire IT infrastructure from
Windows to SuSe Linux Enterprise Server and SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop from
Novell.

Tamil Nadu has already dispatched 6,100 Acer desktop systems
with SuSe Linux. It is deploying 32,600 Linux desktops and training 30,000
government officials for the same, along with 43 open source-based servers
supporting government applications. "Linux has become a way of life for
us," says C Umashankar, MD, ELCOT.

Cost is the big question. "Undeniably, SuSe has made IT
affordable for us by reducing cost. We were able to get the SuSe Linux at a cost
of Rs 300 per desktop license. Training was carried out using our own resources.
The cost of switching was negligible," says Umashankar. "Apart from
the fact that it offers complete security, specifically for all our e-Governance
initiatives, it has also given us complete freedom to choose any type of
operating system," he adds.

Microsoft might be down but is not out. There are still a number
of projects that are running on proprietary platform, like eKaruvoolam, an
automated treasury bill passing system; Tamil Nilam, an e-Governance initiative
of the revenue department to computerize the land records system; Vaahan and
Sarathi applications that process all transactions related to vehicles, and for
driving related activities; and Patram, a postal accounts software.
"Clearly, Tamil Nadu is a place of high momentum driven by able and astute
leadership. ELCOT has taken the decision to shift to open source without taking
in the total cost of ownership over a period of 5-7 years, which is usually how
long the application lasts. The total cost of ownership will be much expensive
over this time-frame because of the support and servicing costs involved,"
says Kumar.

Spreading North

The Linux camp seems happy for now, so long as the government plays a
neutral role and remains a facilitator of its growth. "We expect the
government to be our biggest customer in the domestic market. Creating more
opportunities in terms of projects, and proliferating the governance projects
(like the Mission Mode projects), and increased transparency are things to watch
out for," says Nandu Pradhan, MD, Red Hat.

Red Hat is at present implementing close to seventy e-Governance
projects, of which eight states have treasury applications running on open
source. Among some other important projects, IRCTCs mission-critical ERP
application is also on Linux, and a number of Panchayati Raj applications are
running on Linux. Further, the company has standardized Linux in eleven local
languages. After consolidating their position in the southern states, the open
source companies are looking northwards. Red Hat India is closely working with
the states of Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal and Uttaranchal on various
applications. "In the northern states, the pie is huge. So we are working
with state governments, including Haryana and HP, where adoption is smaller in
size," says Pradhan.

Its Windows for India

All said and done, India is still a country of Windows and Gates. Microsoft
rules the market and even the government sector. While Linux is indeed making
inroads, it will still take a big shove to budge the giant. Statistics more or
less speak for themselves. The previous year saw Microsoft implementing major
contracts spanning over fourteen states. Some of the major projects that they
implemented include the Punjab land records project, e-DharaGujarats
Online Land Administration project, instant money order digitalization project,
MP online, Bihar online, eDhartiGovernment Urban Properties Management, Food
Corporation Indias food grain management project.

Rohit Kumar said, "When you talk about governance in India,
it is a distributed model, spread across cities, state, district, and block
level. Today we are on multiple cities and at state level." Kumar points
out that 11 out of 12 states land records are on Microsofts platform.
Amongst these projects, Gujarat governments eDhara project was widely
applauded, for the share service delivery it enabled in the rural sector. Under
the eDhara project, land records acquired by the state were computerized and
available online. The state government had further planned to computerized land
records in 24 districts, 225 talukas and 18,526 revenue villages, using G-SWAN.

Similarly, Himachal governments online land record system,
HimBhoomi, too is on a Microsoft platform. The HimBhoomi computerization of land
records is in all 110 Tehsils of HP. Himachal IT secretary, Sanjeev Gupta says,
"As far as choosing technology is concerned, Himachal Pradesh will go with
vendors who give technological commercial solutions. Decisions on purchases are
purely going to be made on solutions offered. We would not like to bind
ourselves to any one technology, and would like to follow open standards. At
present most of the applications run on Microsoft."

Another significant win for Microsoft has been the Lokvani
project in Uttar Pradesh, a single window e-Governance solution providing
transparent, accountable and responsive administration for grievance handling,
land record maintenance as well as an eclectic mixture of essential services.

"All customized development that is taking place on
standalone applications might have shifted to open source. Majority of front-end
management, word processing, accounts, small databases are still on the Windows
platform," says VS Kundu, special secretary & director, Information
Technology, Haryana. A senior official from the Maharashtra IT ministry tells DQ,
"Initially, some projects were launched on Linux but the support is poor
and expensive. Open source is no different from proprietary software. If at all
we would go for open source it should come at a better support and minimum
cost," says the official.

Dual Standards

The government seems to be still playing it safe. While there is no definite
policy regulation in this direction by the government at the center, what has
come as a positive push for the open source faction is the fact that the
ministry of IT and Communications has affirmed its role as a facilitator for use
of open standards in e-Gov projects.

R Chandrashekhar, additional secretary, DIT, ministry of IT and
Communication, government of India points out, "The stated policy of the
Government on this is to adopt open standards. We want to remain technology
neutral, and do not want to regulate use of any one technology."

"We certainly want to adopt open standards as far as our
e-Governance projects are concerned," he adds.

The governments attempts to push open standards, however, did
reflect not only in the increased adoption of Linux in critical applications by
some of the other state governments, but also in the move which saw its
technology and research wings, National Informatics Center (NIC) and Center for
Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) sprucing up their open source
infrastructure.

"Clearly, open source is going to be very crucial when it
comes to e-Governance projects. So, it makes lot of sense for us to have a
center devoted to building open source applications," says a senior
official at NIC. C-DAC too has set up a center totally devoted to open source.

"The government is realizing that to uplift the masses in
India, it is essential that India leverages its IT prowess. IT can provide the
uplift through better citizen services, improved and easily accessible
education, jobs creation, and enhanced ability to export IT services. Open
Source software with its favorable economics and community-based development
model is ideally suited to address these challenges," says Zia Saquib,
executive director, C-DAC, Mumbai.

It is in this scenario that IBM, in partnership with IIT-Mumbai
and C-DAC, established the Open Source Software Resource Center (OSSRC), with
the aim of developing, adopting and disseminating solutions, education and
content that use open standards in support of Indias economic development
plans.

Gopakumar Thampi, executive director, Public Affairs Foundation
highlights a different perspective here. "Overall, technology choices in
all e-Gov or ICT roll-outs in India seem to be a victim of a "unipolar"
choice. The need is to actively encourage alternatives."

The Road Ahead

Thampi makes an interesting observation: "A major boost to the advocates of
open source software is the growing presence of "technocrats" in the
Indian bureaucracy. The large number of engineers who enter the civil service
are conversant with the technology choice issues unlike their predecessors a
decade back who mainly came from the humanities and had very little hands on
knowledge about technological issues and choices."

While the competition is visible in the Left-run states more and
Tamil Nadu, so far, what needs to be seen is the pace at which Linux is adopted
by other states. And thats where cost and support will become crucial.
"Governments are cost sensitive organizations, and therefore future
decisions will be made on cost effectiveness," says DC Misra, ex-IT
secretary, Delhi Government. "In fact, we would see Microsoft also mould
and expand into the Linux framework," adds Misra. Trained manpower on the
Linux too is going to be another issue.

The battle between open source and proprietary software will not
die down anytime soon. It will continue to simmer. Definitely, the penguin needs
to do more. The big question is not whether it can but how t?

Urvashi Kaul

urvashik@cybermedia.co.in