Corporate Agreements and Partnerships with Public Bodies

Microsoft Inc. has now openly claimed that it had entered into agreement and strategic partnership with 14 Indian State Governments, prestigious public institutions like National Informatics Centre and the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India (see http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/3/6/03695790-07C9-4EF2-845E-F12092F6B65E/031006/EGovAwardsrelease.doc). Microsoft has claimed that it has been working around some of these agencies for the past 13 years. Most of these projects, now identified as e-Governance projects in operation in various central and state governments, needless to say, are on proprietary non-free Microsoft platforms. The states with which Microsoft claims to have entered into strategic partnership and the states where its projects are in operation include Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Tripura, West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab and Maharashtra.

Some of the top executives of the corporate (Jean Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International and Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India) have expressed happiness and excitement about the prospects of having entered into successful partnership with various governments in India, which, according to the corporate's statement, include 150 e-governance applications running on Microsoft Windows platforms that bring citizens closer to government services. This statement also debunks the claims by some of these e-governance projects on Microsoft becoming their choice for applications. For instance, Information Kerala Mission, a project under the Local Self Governance Department in Kerala had for long claimed that it had decided on the Microsoft platform after extensive technical discussions, a claim that has now turned out to be bogus with Microsoft Inc. asserting that it had entered into strategic partnership with e-governance agencies and state governments.

The performance and operations of all these 150 e-governance projects now stand in direct contrast to the expectations as listed out in the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 as well as to the recommendations of the Knowledge Commission of India on such e-governance projects. The RTI Act insisted on preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information as well as its accessibility - both of which cannot be guaranteed on a proprietary non-free software platform (see http://persmin.nic.in/RTI/WebActRTI.htm (RTI Act 2005, Govt of India)). Confidentiality requires prevention of loss of information, which cannot be guaranteed on closed proprietary non-free platform without continuous inspection for existence of spy-code through which information loss can occur. Guaranteed accessibility can only be implemented if open and free standards and formats are deployed for public information, which also cannot be guaranteed on closed proprietary non-free platforms. Usage of closed and proprietary systems for e-governance applications builds heavy dependance on proprietary software which again runs contrary to the spirit of Right to Information Act. The Knowledge Commission set up by the Government of India to make recommendations on e-governance efforts had explicitly recommended such projects in India to be on free software platforms using open standards taking into consideration the size and scope of such projects, which will also help in improving scaling (see http://www.knowledgecommission.org/downloads/NKCRecommendationsEGovernance.pdf (paras 3, 7)).

In view of the contemporary situation, the state governments and other public agencies that have entered into strategic alliance or partnership with Microsoft Inc, should immediately abandon such projects. Ignoring the spirit of the Right to Information Act 2005 and the spirit of the recommendations of the Knowledge Commission of India on e-governance efforts can well be considered as a naked aggression on the emerging information society in the Indian sub-continent. The Free Software Foundation of India appeals to the Governments involved to shun proprietary non-free software from being used in e-governance efforts and invest in developing such applications only using free software and open standards.

Issued by Free Software Foundation of India in public interest.