Election 2009: BJP’s IT Vision – Support for Open Source, Unlimited VoIP Access
BJP has released it’s IT Vision document for the upcoming election and here are some interesting points:
- Government to standardise on ‘open standard’ and ‘open source’ software.
- Unlimited VoIP access to all
- Internet users to equal mobile subscribers. India to equal China in every IT parameter in five years.
Advani - BJPs IT Vision
- Broadband Internet (2 Mbps) in every town and village, at cable TV prices (less than Rs 200/month).
- 1 crore (10 million) students to get laptop computers at Rs 10,000. Interest-free loan for anyone unable to afford it.
- All schools and colleges to have Internet-enabled education.
- Every BPL family to be given a free smart mobile phone, which can be used by even illiterate users for accessing their bank accounts.
- Video conferencing to be made affordable and universally accessible.
- Primary Health Centre in every village to be linked to the National Telemedicine Service Network. Basic health insurance scheme for every citizen, using the IT platform. Cashless hospitalisation.
- All post offices to be converted into IT-enabled Multi-Service Outlets. All telephone booths to be upgraded to Internet kiosks.
- Citizens will have a simple 1-800 BSNL Toll Free Number, which will be accessible 24×7x 365 days of the year, to contact their Member of Parliament.
- e-Bhasha: National Mission for Promotion of IT in Indian Languages.
- An independent body, Digital Security Agency (DSA), to be set up for cyber warfare, cyber counter-terrorism, and cyber security of national digital assets. – get more details here.
Har Hindustani ka bank khaata;
Har BPL parivar ko smart phone
Har gaon mein broadband suvidha;
Har school mein Internet shiksha;
Sabko rozgaar; Shaasan Janata ke dwaa
What’s your opinion on BJP’s IT manifesto? Surely a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), but in tune with the time! Does this help in attracting tech crowd?
We do need a forward looking government which encourages open source/innovation (remember the debate over Microsoft’s OOXML standards?) – but these promises seem more like fairy tales (unlimited VoIP?)
More coverage of India election 2009
-
Related posts:
- CPI(M) Election Manifesto is Open-source friendly, Wants to revamp Patent Office
- Open (Source) Anyone? List of Useful Open Source Alternatives to Applications you pay for
- Open Source Ranking – India Ranks 23rd, Future dependent on Govt Initiatives
- Five Technology Vaporware from Indian Government in 2009 [2009 Recap]
- Open Source Mobile Platforms – The Complete List
Impressed.
Impressive.
Everything looks too far fetched and unrealistic like Smart Phones for BPL is unnecessary. If they really go about doing it, I think the country will move forward significantly. But I don’t understand why they are targeting the small tech population instead of the large agricultural population for votes.
Well to their credit they are trying to engage with us, as opposed to the others who are dismissive of our very existence. I am not sure if we would be happier being ignored or being engaged with one way communication directed at us. Engagement with the government of India bureaucrats has no happy endings for technology and Internet world in general. Another thing that worries me is the reactionaries and moral police they bring along wherever and whenever they come to power. I can barely understand Sushma Swaraj trying to impose her worldview of morality on the TeeVee box( and perhaps the Internet ).
Anyway a lot of it is cliche ridden and short on real depth in terms of what is really expected on the ground.
“An independent body, Digital Security Agency (DSA), to be set up for cyber warfare, cyber counter-terrorism, and cyber security of national digital assets…”
One word for it ‘BOSH’
“Video conferencing to be made affordable and universally accessible.”
A goal straight from the late 90’s. Its an application of universal broadband availability over 3G, Wimax, Metro Ethernet or DSL.
“Broadband Internet (2 Mbps) in every town and village, at cable TV prices (less than Rs 200/month).”
Sure buddy with a dataflow limit of probably 125MB/month and in about 5-10 years from now when the rest of the world would be on gigabit speeds. How about un-bundling the last mile or implementing the saner proposals of TRAI for un-distorting the free market and better regulation for broadband.
“1 crore (10 million) students to get laptop computers at Rs 10,000. Interest-free loan for anyone unable to afford it.”
This is doable, how about just waiving off import duty,cenvat and service tax on computer hardware/software/services and let free market do it for you ? Big government == evil government.
“All schools and colleges to have Internet-enabled education.”
What exactly does this mean ? Most schools and colleges have Internet and the primary usage of the same is for accessing orkut, what has a government got to do with that. How about free’ing education from the clutches of big government and non-profit registered educational societies, instead promote true free market for increasing quantity and quality.
I could go on, its easy to make promises, we need to know how they are going to be fulfilled and who is paying for them. Otherwise its just another version of free food for poor or free electricity for the farmers.
@Tarun
This is the same government who slashed the STD rates drastically to just 14% of what it was without any propoganda. Some things are doable, you just need the will to do it. May be they mean what they say
All this crap means more surveillance (control) over lives of Indian humans (and bots).
/me waits for someone to pwn this country.
Why can’t they have a vision to scrap the Ministry of IT? Simple, will take little work and will save millions in precious government resources and gain millions of hours of productive time.
Since wishes are not horses, and we are not all lotuses or even “phools”, let me point out the basic fallacy behind any such policy framework, even if good-intentioned and backed by intent.
This manifesto is “hardware-centric” thinking. Make the bandwidth available, make laptops available and “miracle happens”. It will not happen, simply because, we have not spared any thought about who the end-users are, what kind of content will serve (inform, entertain or educate) them best and indeed, what language to serve them up in.
Also, as Tarun Dua points out, references to videoconferencing while talking about infrastructure is really confused thinking.
Ah well; at least this party thought about something to do for IT.
well i am totally impressed.. these are the points india and indian’s really require.. and i think advani can really do it…
It seems the efforts of people like Mr. Praveen Dalal are finally appreciated and have been endorsed by one of the biggest national political party. The BJP has endorsed many of his suggestions including those pertaining to establishment of an independent body, Digital Security Agency (DSA), to be set up for cyber warfare, cyber counter-terrorism, and cyber security of national digital assets. It may also be a coincidence that we have also suggested for a national ICT policy for effective e-governance in India few days back. We expect similar endorsement by other national parties like Congress so that India may have a safe and secure cyberspace.
Techtalk,
Thats a big tragedy indeed. We have CERT-IN recommending censoring of the web and now DSA that would want to monitor everything it can monitor driving up the cost of operating infrastructure.
To secure their digital assets they need to scrap the organization called NIC and let individual departments to manage their own assets as they see fit. Centralized bureaucracies are EVIL.
“cyber warfare, cyber counter-terrorism” what are they smoking ?
-Tarun
First, the link between poll promises and action is weak.
And the link between action taken and impact on social objectives is weaker still.
Therefore, providing IT regulation, more IT hardware, more connectivity which is all part of IT infrastructure without proper vision for implementation through building allied capabilities will only make it fall apart like what happens today in primary education or primary healthcare (social infrastructure).
Maybe the document is aimed at the “IT aware” (but not aware enough to figure out if this IT vision document has meat and teeth) audience.It is a dichotomy visible starkly in developing countries – we have abject poverty, illiteracy and lack of basic standards of living for a big % of the population. At the same time there are other groups of people with global living standards, global views on what to eat, wear, how to be connected to the world and who think that this IT vision document is a good thing to have. This document is trying to address this other group.
Second, a government’s primary responsibility is defence from external threats, number two is internal law and order and number three is welfare activities. When the government fails to deliver on one and two, and keeps on talking about the third only, it is clearly vote bank politics.
To put this document in context, voters need to be aware about the entire poll manifesto, check whether it addresses our major concerns, debate whether each promise is doable, effective (against stated goals), get information on data that puts the problem and solution in context and so on. The richness of a poll debate will depend on all these.
“To put this document in context, voters need to be aware about the entire poll manifesto, check whether it addresses our major concerns, debate whether each promise is doable, effective (against stated goals), get information on data that puts the problem and solution in context and so on. The richness of a poll debate will depend on all these.”
Democracy is a number game! We can keep debating while the ‘vote banks’ shore up the numbers, making ‘us; irrelevant!
Great things start with a mission.. and I’d say it’s a good start, for a political party to have an IT vision to speak of.. trying to step out of the communal shadows!
I just wish that my native-a village get clean water and 24 hours electricity.
Right now,it is having 3 alternate days water supply and 12 hours of powercut.
Is any politician listening from last 50 Years?
It’s good to know that BJP has endorsed Open Source software and the comminity. It’s a good step. Government should always consider top quality and inexpensive software solutions. They are afterall spending tax-payers’ money. Long live open source. All the best to BJP for the coming Lok-sabha elections.
I would welcome if BJP can state clearly their proposed annual budgeted income and expenditure for the next 5 years and how they propose to achieve each of the welfare measures specified by them and fix specific single point responsibility, milestones and targets instead of talking of generalities and wishful thoughts.
How they will go about eliminating corruption, achieve total transparency and accountability in all actions of Governments from the National level to the Panchayat level, how will black money be eliminated from circulation, how a level playing field will be created for all citizens in all facets of life such as ensuring nutritious food to eliminate hunger, agriculture production, ensure sufficient pure water, good health, hygiene, housing for all, education for all, employment generation, skills training required by communities, small savings, social security for all, narrowing the divide between the rich and the poor, etc.
Greetings from PANKAJ JAISWAL !
Like me, if you believe that taking Information Technology and Internet to rural area in whole india can change life of all indian citizen than lets support BJP. Since BJP is have better focus on spreading IT/Internet hence myself decided that being a silent supporter for a political party is not good enough to take India at next level in this compitive IT /Internet world World. I Also decided to publicly voice my support for the BJP for the general elections to be held in April-May 2009.
I Apeal all Information technologist to come out and Lets Support BJP as party and Mr L. K. Advani as PM Candidate.
Pls Visit http://www.lkadvani.in/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4079&p=0 to know more about the same.