Elections in India are hotting up and the internet is now increasingly becoming a playground of the political forces in reaching out to the (urban) voters. Check out the BJP’s IT vision document that was released a few days back. Someone uploaded it to SlideShare. The document lays out the party’s views on various aspects of Indian IT. Notable amongst is the support for open source technologies. The document says that if voted to power it will support the use of software based on open or free sources in all government-related deployments.
Traditionally the leftist parties have always espoused the cause of open standards and advocated against software patents. Proprietary software is seen by them as a symbol of the capitalistic policies that they oppose tooth and nail, hence open source advocacy dovetails neatly into their ideology.
BJP & the Left’s stand on FOSS is music to the ears for open source commnity. As this report indicates, as far as elections 2009 are concerned, the only major political party that is yet to clarify its stand on this issue is the Congress.
Here are some of the key promises in the BJP document that stand out:
- Multipurpose National Identity Card with Citizen Identification Number (CIN) in 3 years; to replace all other identification systems.
- 1.2 crore new IT-enabled jobs in rural areas.
- 1 crore students to get laptop computers at Rs 10,000.
- Broadband Internet in every town and village, with unlimited upload and download data transfer limits, at cable TV prices.
- Mobile penetration to be raised in five years from 40 crore to 100 crore subscribers. As many Internet users as mobile users. Every BPL family to be given free smart mobile phone.
- India to equal China in every IT parameter in five years.
- Unrestricted VoIP would be implemented immediately.
- Citizens will have a simple 1-800 BSNL Toll Free Number, which is accessible 24 x 7x 365 days of the year, to contact their Member of Parliament.
- Government of India to standardise on ‘open standard’ and ‘open source’ software. An IT standards-setting body would be spun out of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards).
- Video-conferencing to be made affordable and universally accessible.
- Domestic hosting industry to be promoted to minimise international bandwith charges.
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It definitely looks like a top notch piece of work..am sure a lot of industry experts have been consulted b4 coming up with this…
If this would happen then It would be great. And I think its possible in near future. (though m bit doubtful about the Rs. 10000 desktops)
Nagamarpalli joins BJP–
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Senior Congress leader and former minister Gurupadappa nagamaarapalli resigned from the Assembly membership, formally joined the BJP. Sources in the BJP said the party would gain strength in the Hyderabad Karnataka region with the entry of the Congress leader.
After discussions with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani who was here on Wednesday to participate in a programme at Tumkur, Mr. Nagamarapalli met Speaker Jagadish Shettar and submitted his resignation. The Speaker announced that the resignation had been accepted.
Visit to –http://bjpkarnataka.org
The IT vision is one of its kind. It can make India not only on par with China but can supercede it.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/10/stories/2009041055960900.htm
BJP discusses LS poll strategy for Karnataka–
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Front ranking leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday discussed the strategy it should adopt in the next month Lok Sabha polls to ensure that it win more number of seats in Karnataka.
Visit to –http://bjpkarnataka.org
Yes the IT vision can fetch young voters to the BJP.
yes he can win the elections and become the 18th Prime Minister of India.
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