Backwardness of Infrastructure or Backwardness of the Mind ?
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osKanpur
Nov 18, 2007, 2:30:10 AM11/18/07
to Open Source Kanpur
Backwardness of Infrastructure or Backwardness of the Mind ?
For the Indian enthusiasts of Ubuntu and Linux it sometimes comes as a
complete shock that a country which bursts into raptures when women
are launched into outer space, a country that just freaks out when it
sees fillums like Swadesh, Chak de India etc and a country which
regards itself as one of the providers of choice of IT services,
innovation and IT expertise to many parts of the world - is very
silent when it comes to the question of IT infrastructure.
However if you have had ocassion to talk to some of the smartest
Indian IT professors, working for well over decades in premier science
and technology teaching and research institutes, one cannot help
asking them a few questions on Linux and the Indian community :
1. For how many years have you been using Linux ?
2. For how many years have you been teaching Linux ?
3. How many world class conferences you have attended or hosted on
Linux with lots and lots of government money ?
4. How many times you have given media interviews regarding IT
innovation strategy for this country ?
5. How many years you have spent on accumulating experience on
clusters of computing hardware ?
And then if you ask them one simple question as to why - if when a
user in an Indian village wants to download Ubuntu Linux from an
Indian server there is no Indian server offering free downloads - they
just go suddenly quiet.
How long is this state expected to last ?
Just try going to the Ubuntu Linux download page and see (forget the
world) - just check out which Asian countries have servers from which
common people can download Ubuntu Linux from.
You will be amazed that all these high flying science and technology
bureaucrats of India have not even found the time or the resources to
offer a server for simple downloads.
And do you wonder what countries figure there ?
Well certainly not the so called big boss of IT - India. Nor the IT
capitalists who profess to be socialists at heart.
There is no NASSCOM there. No IIT. No IIIT. No IIM
Then who is there ? -
Surprise of surprises - China, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Vietnam.
No Indian servers at all from any of the high flying prestigious IT
computing hubs sprinkled all over India.
Is this issue symptomatic about ills and achievements of Indian
Science and Technology, some fifty years after the dreams of public
sector and science and technology revolution in India ?
For the Indian enthusiasts of Ubuntu and Linux it sometimes comes as a
complete shock that a country which bursts into raptures when women
are launched into outer space, a country that just freaks out when it
sees fillums like Swadesh, Chak de India etc and a country which
regards itself as one of the providers of choice of IT services,
innovation and IT expertise to many parts of the world - is very
silent when it comes to the question of IT infrastructure.
However if you have had ocassion to talk to some of the smartest
Indian IT professors, working for well over decades in premier science
and technology teaching and research institutes, one cannot help
asking them a few questions on Linux and the Indian community :
1. For how many years have you been using Linux ?
2. For how many years have you been teaching Linux ?
3. How many world class conferences you have attended or hosted on
Linux with lots and lots of government money ?
4. How many times you have given media interviews regarding IT
innovation strategy for this country ?
5. How many years you have spent on accumulating experience on
clusters of computing hardware ?
And then if you ask them one simple question as to why - if when a
user in an Indian village wants to download Ubuntu Linux from an
Indian server there is no Indian server offering free downloads - they
just go suddenly quiet.
How long is this state expected to last ?
Just try going to the Ubuntu Linux download page and see (forget the
world) - just check out which Asian countries have servers from which
common people can download Ubuntu Linux from.
You will be amazed that all these high flying science and technology
bureaucrats of India have not even found the time or the resources to
offer a server for simple downloads.
And do you wonder what countries figure there ?
Well certainly not the so called big boss of IT - India. Nor the IT
capitalists who profess to be socialists at heart.
There is no NASSCOM there. No IIT. No IIIT. No IIM
Then who is there ? -
Surprise of surprises - China, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Vietnam.
No Indian servers at all from any of the high flying prestigious IT
computing hubs sprinkled all over India.
Is this issue symptomatic about ills and achievements of Indian
Science and Technology, some fifty years after the dreams of public
sector and science and technology revolution in India ?
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