Indian Government plans to develop its own operating system (to be developed by DRDO) which will initially be used for defense applications (and later for commercial).
Two software engineering centers are being set up for this purpose in Bangalore and New Delhi, as per this report.
Perspective/Details: May of 2010, Government announced decision to build its own OS and anti virus product and seems this is an update, given the ‘supposedly’ successful development of $35 laptop.
Frankly, last thing one would expect the government to do is to develop its own Operating system or anti virus product.
Earlier, there was a $10 Laptop (which was not even a laptop, but a USB stick) and then ISRO Bhuvan, and then $200mn investment in building a micrprocessor [read Five Technology Vaporware from Indian Government] and the latest vaporware from government is that they want to develop its own operating system as well as an anti virus software.
Why OS?
Because too many government sites get hacked, the data is stolen so easily and building one’s own OS and anti-virus will help curb such situations.
“A sanitised, lower level operating system and application software may be preferred to the advanced versions, which necessarily require access to internet for upgrades. The new software could be deployed in key departments that have been under constant cyber attacks. The taskforce also includes officials of the Prime Minister’s Office as well as defence, home and telecom & IT ministries.
No sensitive information will be stored on systems connected to the internet, while ministries and departments have been told to carry out regular IT systems audits. The government has also established a Crisis Management Plan against cyber attacks to be implemented by all central ministries, state governments and critical sectors,- source
Government probably should be told that CDAC has developed OS (derived from Debian), called BOSS [i.e. Bharat Operating System Solutions].
Microsoft, are you reading this? If even an iota of this is true, MS stands to lose, but it won’t as we have seen in ODF/OOXML case.
Not a bad thought…
Why not the SOFTWARE GIANTS like TCS,INFOSYS,HCL… pitch in? why to stop at ID creation … Installation and maintenance?
Too tough…is it? and i assume we don’t have people to do that. What we can do is overwrite some-one’s code or bug fix right?
Kasi
lol those are not software giants, they are crap giants not worth for producing any good piece of software, remember TCS (security consultant) website was hacked and they never knew about it for a day.
TCS website was NOT hacked, dude. Their DNS was changed to redirect to some other IP address. This is called DNS hijack. This purely the negligence of DNS/hosting provider that TCS is using.
Do you mean to say that TCS is not a crap company? Or you man to say that altering DNS to redirect to another porno website is not about hacking.
Negligence?
Ravi Sharma
I agree.
Indian IT Companies are mere contracters of western Giants. Microsoft makes softwares and Indian companies sell it to Indians.
They couldn’t even produce a single product in India, forget about global market.
One question to Fools in TCS, Wipro – Why you are acting as marketting agents of SAP? Why don’t you make a product like SAP from India which can sell globally?
TCS + Wipro + Infosys = Coolies of Western Software Giants.
Whatever happened to the crores of Government money that was spent in building this? http://www.bosslinux.in/
Which was a copy of Ubuntu anyways!
this needs a serious stand. who is answerable for all the failed projects done earlier.
i really need to know which technology company is duping govt. into this.
Bunch of big fat assholes!
NIC has the biggest set of losers in the nation.
Basically, we are not that much secure even the top infy,wipro tcs ( even its website got hacked in past ) and putting money into a unsecured world is not good.
There should be a strong ethics to control the bad things and if TCS cant protect its website then how come it ensures its clients safety and security
Government pouring lakhs and crores of ruppes for creating a OS and Antivirus is not good, better they might get in touch with microsoft to create a powerful gov OS and also get in touch with best Antivirus companies to provide the best Software and the complete maintenance should be from them
ofcourse coming to key data transfer there might be chance of copying key data from the above company employees are anybody, there should be a restriction process according to the level of bodies using the system
Sai Pothuri
LoL…guys whocannot even protect their websites are planning to develop their own OS and Antivirus.. really a joke of the day :)
Naman – you are dead right – not only does NIC have the biggest set of losers it also has a huge number of MNCs and indian corporates milking it. We did a project where MS and their “partners” had sold crores of
software and hardware to the government which was not being used.
The personnel were using the computer room as an A/C room to sleep. Similarily partners like HCL and
TCS send people at INR 5,000 per month (L1 crap – cheapest is the best, what about quality?)
I think the media should do a full expose on this scam going on in the name of e-governance.
Tarun
It will be more like this:
Step 1. Take a popular linux distro CD
Step 2. copy to blank CD
Step 3. Put new name on CD
:P
oh yeah missed out on the part that each CD will cost bazillions of crores to copy (CD writer cost extra) *wink wink*
Firstly, I am not a great fan of the government. secondly at the first look, even it looked to me like it might be a misdirected effort on the part of the goverment to venture into something like building OS.
That said, let me present a case for government to build an OS
1. A lot of what is todays technology came either directly from DoD or due to DoD. you name it and it has a link to DoD or CIA or one of those governmental organizations (although from USA). Only exception probably was MacOS, which was truly meant to address a more democratic computational need. (bottomline, government involvement and intervention is need not be a hindrance in all cases). Its not that these US government bodies were any better, they just had the funding and a motive to continuously try despite miserable failures on many fronts.
2. I would like to point out that, its not just government… the entire indian industry is also not in any better shape than govt in creating and delivering brilliant products as compared to government. forget indian companies, nothing great came from MNCs from their india centers either. Infact all the so called “india centers” are more or less glorified versions of captives, which help their parent orgs free up some bandwidth for their main people by offloading the product management for version 30.0.1.2.x…. to their india center.Atleast nothing big, not something which caught the attention of the entire world came out of india operations; Mind you, I am not even asking for an iPod or an iPhone here. Only exception probably is Intel. But then again I dont know how much of their stories are for media consumption. That said, atleast the goverment employees may not deliver, but live on subsistence salaries :).
Now the above two arguments dont still prove (or atleast give benefit of doubt) that indian govt can deliver. So here is what seals it.
3. Indian defense research establishment DRDO, ISRO, HAL, NAL and IISc labs have been delivering some good innovations over a period of time. (Please set aside your arguments about these institutions having monopoly over few areas till liberalization. the case wasnt much different in US either, if at all they just had more focus and drive to outspend russia (which ultimately lead to bankruptcy of the soviet state))
4. Now then, I still dont know the true motive of the government to develop an OS. (I dont think they would want to be out in the market to commercialize it. E.g DRDO developed the food packing technology, which is commercialised by the likes of MTR. I dont think DRDO stood to gain a lot of money through this). Now if their motivations are totally driven by defense considerations then it can possibly be justifiable. (before you say, that if they were capable enough they should have prevented the cyber attacks themselves, then all you blokes would also be aware that by the same count, the company with wolrds best brains, ticker goes by GOOG, was also not able to prevent, forget prevent, even trace conclusively the source of the attacks on their site). So from defense consideration, there is a lot of synergy in what goes into managing the various functionalities of a sattelite launch vehicle and the satellite itself that can be reused.
so … summarily… all I want to say is … dont write it off entirely. As a nation, we tend to look down upon ourselves. Jingoistic rhetoric apart, I think we need to cultivate some self respect.
Bhaiyya Google aur Indian Government website ko compare karr key tumney hamari laaj rakh lee. Baki ye OS bana nai payengey chahein tow kucch bhi karr lein…:D
Apke mitra
Hanthi
Other than ISRO, there is nearly zero innovation from DRDO HAL etc. And when it comes to internet based or desktop based tech at max they are good at using XL word or giving offline presentations.
Cultivating self respect is good but delivering a commercial project like OS is not what Indian Government is capable of doing. Tomorrow would you create your own stand alone internet just because Chinese or Bangladeshi hackers sweep you off your feet?
Hmm… looks like you are ill informed in certain areas. Isro is in limelight due to the continuous launches of satellite launch vehicles and the media attention it gets. Please note that each launch has a significant work coming from other research agencies like HAL and DRDO etc. Btw you might be better off reading “black swan” about the winner takes all effect.
Second… your argument about delivering a “commercial project like OS” is flawed. Flawed because you are making an assumption that OS is by definition a commercial project. If you are wise enough you know it is not. Just because the most popular OSes Windows/Mac are popular because of their commercial use doesnt mean OS by definition is commercial. It need not be.
Also your argument about “creating your own internet” is also flawed. This inhenerently makes the assumption that Internet as we know it is defacto and that there is no scope for a new and far more powerful technology to replace it. This is the difference between western and indian minds. Infact the west and for that matter china am sure are already working on ideas to redefine the internet. (now dont ask me the form and format of such an internet, my thinking just like yours has limitations). (And btw … dont try to harp on the “standalone” part of your argument, am sure you know its silly)
Anyways, one of my core points in the debate was that indian government might be not quite strong in science and technology development but at the same time neither is the indian industry. If the government has a bunch of losers, the private sector has a bigger bunch of cyber coolies (me included).
+1 ‘J’ but why anonymous?
I have one more opinion to add in this debate. Instead of Govt. or even Private juggernauts developing the products like OSes, what India (Gov) can do is incentivize the ICTs w.r.t investments, taxation and even free-money to bring up tech product startups in particular.
I mean try it once again coz this time around there is abundant talent like you and me. Unlike the 80s when Wipros Infy’s TCS tried & failed to become product companies unavailability of infrastructure was compounded by shortage of talent too.
This time there is better chance of making the product companies come alive coz there is abundant talent and decent infrastructure too.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Arvind
As far as i remember… HCL was the only company which tried making their own PC and OS in the 80′s with only minimum electronics bought from outside.
And there was this PCL which vanished even before 90′s.
Arvind, BTW i like your confidence in making the OS and Anti-virus … do you have a decade to wait/sustain/grow/pay :-)
lol – honestly I don’t have much interest in trying new OSes. In fact I feel rebellious when our Government talks abt tech from the ass.
Wait till Google Chrome OS comes out in the market; coz that is ground up considering internet era. Cavemen will disappear once again.
Right now for me, ubuntu is doing great job! I don’t need any more OSes, at least not from the Indian Government…Probably they might need it for internal gov infrastructure, I dunno about it.
Cheers,
Arvind
[rant] but even if something do comes up, it’ll never be put up in public domain despite being funded from the taxpayer’s monies by a non-profit-making-organization (hopefully?) aka government. So, lets pray they never be able to succeed in anything, because if they do, then it’ll be another piece of crap.[/rant]
I agree with the idea that Indian Government should have its own OS. In a competing world, you cannot rely on proprietary software made by any private firm. This will test waters and check Government’s capabilities, but must be done for a brighter future.
Basic grammar: You wrote ‘to develop it’s own Operating system’ but no, not ‘it’s’ but ‘its’. ‘It’s’ is ALWAYS SHORT FOR ‘IT IS’. Sorry about the uppercase but is this really such a difficult rule to follow?
Re-inventing a wheel is not a good idea , specially for an OS. What they can do is: To ask MS / Google to customize an OS for them and I am sure they will have money bags to pay for it.
Set your requirements, get a custom OS made. Same with McAfee Anti-Virus. (AV would make sense if they are expecting their own set of viruses to come :)))))
Deeps
Sounds like a great way to funnel money government into India’s version of the CIA. …. if you’re into the government conspiracy type of thing. ;-)
I dont think govt. is foraying into hardware/software business. As a tax payer I am happy that govt is adopting open source and saving crores. I dont feel happy when RBI pays 700 crores to Microsoft for licensing windows every few years… A linux based solution will definitely cost far less than this and it is one time cost…
A thing to note, several govt. in the world have rolled out there own version of linux based os, China, Brazil and Germany to name few. Infact Indian govt. has woken up late…
It is interesting to note that they started thinking of making an anti-virus along with the OS itself…ha ha ha.
@Vivek there is a policy in all Gov & Statutory Bodies: “No Opensource” will be considered for security/quality reasons. You are way off the mark man!
Cheers,
Arvind
Pingback: Aftershocks of the GFC – Higher Taxes and Interest Rates – Ver Pangonilo - Filipino Engineer
Pingback: Indian Government To Develop Own Operating System
LMAO :D
@Arvind – the government has no such policy against open source. Please don’t go around spreading FUD.
I can prove it to you, but before that let’s decide where you will gimme a treat :-)
Not only there is policy against Opensource, even in buying servers (hardware) there is a line which says “Intel bla bla bla”…AMD left out!
So where do we meet for a treat? And I am ready to sponsor you a beer if this is wrong, Sir.
~ Arvind
Pingback: Government single moms government grants Info – What Causes A Stroke | What Causes A Stroke
@Arvind You are living in which age ? There are thousands of government tenders which mention open source clearly. There are several government projects which are run only to promote open source. CDAC(s) are doing some serious work into building open source solutions for government agencies and deploying htem. Allahbad and Delhi High courts already run on open source. They use a NIC developed linux based distro.
Even whitehouse.gov runs on open source platform called Drupal with full source code released. If it can happen in corporate america, why it cant happen here
So stop spreading FUD when you dont have full information. Yes there are idiots in the government which will say Intel server and blah blah in the tenders, but they are wrong. In the first lace the tender says Intel xyz processor or equivalent. Such tenders can be challenged in the court.
Hmmm. So you know what whitehouse.gov uses? But then why are you comparing apples with oranges. America is a rich nation with lot’s of competence and experience to merit-based technology. But it’s nice that you mentioned whitehouse.gov here.
Just look at their website and compare it with anything that’s doled out from Indian babus.
And stop throwing emotional crap to say its all fud. Just because it hurts you to see the reality doesn’t mean a lot of people are completely unaware about the amount of open-source stuff which CDACs and NIC have brought in.
Perhaps Andhra Pradhesh is one good example to quote when it comes to the states that have adopted technology more rationally than others. FUD is when you have no tenders to be challenged in court. So write meaningful stuff when you have enough matter to support yourself.
In fact Vivek, I decided not to leave you halfway with misrepresentation. To see where the world of Governance is headed, you can follow Alex Howard (digiphile) over http://radar.oreilly.com/alexh/ and really know the depth at which we people are when it comes to technology and future. And how directionless (arguably) it is to implement an OS out of a Linux Distro. It means nothing 30 years after OSes were created and it’s not gonna give any security to the Government networks as long as we are on internet. You’d understand why so.
Now I can’t write so much under a comment, but you are underestimating the challenge of future by preventing people like me from bringing out contrariwise views on issues that plague us now, and would eventually plague us more in the times to come.
BTW I also write on Government 2.0 on Govloop – A community for American Government and I will be more than willing to hear your views on issues like this :)
I hope it answers your question about the age I am living in…:)
cheers,
Arvind
Good article and very good discussion.
Indian Government should used as much as Free & Open Source Software.
Any Linux version, ( specially Ubuntu ) can serve the purpose :)
I had seen BOSS ( Ubuntu base OS developed by CDAC ), which ok to start with. But still we can improve a lot. But I think in any Government office use of application requirement is very limited. We can name it like Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Internet Browser and email client and few 10 odd application. With use of Linux OS, you don’t required Antivirus :)
So let use BOSS and promote BOSS !!!
This seems to be the classical case of the actual story being lost in translation! (Not helped a wee-bit by the over-zealous headline from ToI or the poster)
From what I gather, the “proposed” “recommendation” is to have a fork of an existing Linux distribution and customise it such that necessary security requirements is met. The purpose similar to the spirit of SELinux ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-Enhanced_Linux )
Weeding away the poster’s obfuscation of the story, the task-force panel’s recommendation do make sense, at least in some level, to me (frankly, it sounded a re-iteration of popularly accepted IT security tenants like, do not keep sensitive info on the network unless necessary, ability to perform software and network audits etc.. blah.. blah and .. blah…).
Going back to my main point, I think the real story was merely that the Govt. has set up a task force to investigate IT Security breach and provide recommendations. The report is due on June 2010. Chances are that, the report will end up into the heap of yet another panel recommendations. The OS and anti-virus story is courtesy the masala loving ToI reporter/story-maker and the subsequent imaginative souls in the pipeline!
TCS, Infy etc are service companies, they just build software, there is huge difference between what they work for and what making an OS means. For any reasons, I wouldn’t expect such a work being done by any of the Indian IT companies which are service based. Even product making and selling ain’t their part of job. So please don’t put blame or criticize them in this regard.
It will be interesting to see who gets this job and why. (However, the why can part can have some obvious answers). But lets wait and see what happens.
Tender could provide opportunity to lots of other qualified people/organizations. It won’t be a surprise if we hear a less known name.
Pingback: Indian Government to develop its own Operating System and anti virus products « Amit Karpe
I cant stop laughing at this, this should be on slashdot :D
Hamar lalwa(read Lalu) should be the program manager and Madam Maya should be the chief architect of this OS ;)
Custom made OS for Indian Govt and anti virus application to complement.. I don’t understand why they pour in lot of our hard earned money in ventures.. which will never end .i.e. I believe this is another way of govt Babus..to fill their black-holed pockets.. As far as tender is concerned.. it would be pre- decided who (which company) will get the OS project.
I agree with the fact that there is no Indian company who can really build such OS & in fact in all the major industry verticals.. its the outsiders who are the leaders in world class sofware product..(though they have been built by using Indian resources)
Yes India is leader.. but unfortunately in delivering spam (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Beating-China-India-turns-world-s-top-spam-source/Article1-559298.aspx)
What I can suggest is:
1) Indian govt should open an IT soft development company.
2) Build 2versions of OS 1.0 & 1.1
3) 1.0 t o be sold in market and any individual/company using it would get a tax rebate.
4) 1.1 to be used in house.
5) So advance version to be used in house and lower version to be sold in Indian market at lesser price.. :)
The reason behind this thought is the impression/image which individuals including me has developed over the period of time regarding our govt .i.e. every big project is initiated with the only intention which is to earn/fill their own pockets..
Pingback: India Report Card for Technology 2010 - Part 2 | Melvins Inquisitive Mind
Everyone seems to be ranting about useless things. All operating systems try and attempt to be secure. Atleast with the Windows and Linux people find the flaws and fix it. If someone manages to find a backdoor in the Indian OS no one will ever find out and people will pilfer information for all time to come without anyone ever finding out. Who is going to guarantee that this OS is not hackable?
What is rational behind developing own operating system? Will it be server OS or desktop OS? In the world of netbook and tablet PCs desktop OSes are losing their relevance. If it is server OS then I can understand that govt or Defense operations can use it effectively but if it is desktop OS then it is waste of tax payer’s money.
hamm came across another joke of the day. please some one ask them to learn how to manage and keep fresh contents on their websites and then they can for sure start developing their own OS.
Here you find lots of links to different dating start meet teens lolitas mature grannys milf lollipop teens.Get free6 and Join V.I.P areas, where you can camchat and meet teens lolitas mature grannys milf hairy teens lolitas midgets all things you ever going to need. free6 with V.I.P treatment with special gifts inside.