www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/12/21/india.microsoft.support.ap -> www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/12/21/india.microsoft.support.ap/
won a battle against open source software supporters in India's technology hub of Bangalore, with local authorities choosing its software for networking the state's utilities a nd services. An e-governance project for the 55 million people of Karnataka state, of which Bangalore is the capital, will begin April 2005 and will be powere d by Microsoft's proprietary software, an official said Monday. "We will initially put 24 citizen services online and more later," said R ajiv Chawla, secretary of Karnataka's electronic governance department. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, on a visit to India in November 2002, wooe d the federal and state governments in India, offering to sell his compa ny's software at prices much lower than market rates. Microsoft sold software at 45 percent of the market price to the private company executing the Bangalore project, Chawla said. Microsoft's critics have opposed the plan, saying it was only a trick to tie large populations to proprietary software. "By using proprietary systems, you are locked into a technology over whic h you have no control," said Frederick Noronha, an activist who supports greater freedom for software users. Let open source become so popular, then we will have no problem using it," Chawla countered. Open source applications come without any restriction on use, copying and modification of the software, while proprietary systems impose several restrictions. The government will initially open 15 centers across the city to provide services including utility payments, banking, passport applications, tra vel booking and social security applications. About 2,000 centers will be established across the state in two years, Chawla said. Each center will have 20 staff members who will help citizens, including the illiterate, transact their business with the government online.
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