[no subject]

[Atul Chitnis <achitnis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To
The Ministry of Information Technology
New Delhi, India.

Gentlemen:

I was very pleased to see the DoE's transformation into the Ministry of
Information Technology - it shows the progress we are making in this
field.

However, I was a bit disheartened to see the complete absence of any
reference to Linux on your website.

Considering the important role that the DoE/MIT plays in India's advances
in IT, and the fact that Linux is being adopted by Governments the world
over, this seems like a major gap in the DoE/MIT's strategy to bring
computing to the masses. And with Linux now achieving mainstream status in
the computing industry the world over, this gap seems even more obvious.

The Government of Karnataka has already taken the first few steps by
making the study of Linux compulsory at technical education levels, and is
beginning to adopt Linux at various levels of Government functioning. The
University of Goa is running full-fledged Linux courses for both students
and industry, and *any* industry expo these days has provisions for
Linux-oriented topics. Your own ERnet has been the single biggest user of
Linux since the early 90's.

We, of Linux India (http://www.linux-india.org), have been actively
spreading the word of Linux among the masses. But even the almost 1000
members of LI cannot achieve what a few people in the DoE/MIT can achieve
- awareness of Linux in the right quarters.

May I therefore suggest some levels of cooperation between the DoE/MIT and
Linux India to enable India to benefit more comprehensively from Linux?

With warm regards,

Atul Chitnis
Coordinator, Linux India, Bangalore
http://www.linux-india.org