Misleading Microsoft and Kannada

MS - Project Shiksha - GoK - Kannada Activists - Article in INDIA TODAY 6/2005
MS is a problem for our language !!

Misleading Microsoft and Kannada ?Tunga?
Microsoft deletes Kannada Discussion!!
As Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam went for a walk in Delhi’s Mughal Gardens one sunny November day three years ago, much of the conversation centred around computer education in government schools. In his inimitable, passionate way, Kalam underlined the importance of educating small children to the world’s richest man. And one of the first things Gates did was announce a $20-million grant to his company’s initiative Project Shiksha. Two years later, Microsoft India signed an mou with the Karnataka government to ensure access to and training in latest computer technologies. And now a year later, that project looks likely to be mired in controversies—prime among them being that it will allow an mnc to monopolise the minds of children.
Sahitya Akademi award winner K.P. Poornachandra Tejasvi says he does not want the Government to be tied to one company while well-known playwright Chandrashekhar Kambar says it will come in the way of multilateral education, with Microsoft even being given the right to prepare the curriculum. Microsoft aims to reach out to over 4 lakh students and over 20,000 teachers in government schools, from classes III to XII, over a five-year mou period in Karnataka alone, while nationally it plans to train 3.5 million children and about 80,000 teachers in the same period. The mou entails the setting up of three Microsoft it Academy centres in Bangalore, Gulbarga and Dharwad to deliver comprehensive teacher training, create a localised it curriculum for students, start teacher and student scholarships and set up a teachers’ portal.
On the face of it, the Microsoft proprietary software is claimed to be free for Project Shiksha. But protesters point to the fine print in the mou’s clause II.2 that says that the Government will set up three it academies in “a central location” of Bangalore, Dharwad and Gulbarga and give it to Microsoft for an annual charge of Rs 1 XXXXXX to run for five years. It also specifies that the Government will provide a 1,000-2,000 sq ft building with “electricity, running water, sewer, security and maintenance staff and phone and/or lease lines”. Adds Tejasvi: “The Government assures that it would regularly supply students for the it academies, which is like saying that we will supply regular customers for Microsoft. This means the Government has to shell out crores of rupees of taxpayers’ money to help Microsoft carry out its philanthropy.”
In response, Director, Public Sector, at Microsoft, Nandu Pradhan, says that the project is a joint partnership with the Government wherein it provides space to set up the it Academy centres. “We want to take it education to the grassroots level,” he adds. “We have trained more than 14,000 teachers and reached out to nearly 7 lakh students in Phase I of Project Shiksha in India.”
After Tejasvi wrote to the then additional chief secretary and development commissioner Chiranjiv Singh on the issues involved, the latter admitted that the facts of the matter were an eye-opener and asked his men to take appropriate action.
US-based Nova Group ceo and President, Venkat M. Kumaraswamy, also a KANNADA Activist, who has floated an Internet activism group EKAVI on the issue, has petitioned both Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda on this, pointing out that training only in Microsoft products would mean restricting job opportunities later. Kumaraswamy says the correct approach is to teach children with total open source solutions so that they become marketable once out of school. He adds that he is not against Microsoft products, but only against the Government’s one vendor policy.
Kumaraswamy also says that, English software (software with English interface) like MS Windows 98 and MS Office 2000 are used in the Government of Karnataka’s Mahithi Sindhu project where in the medium of instruction is Kannada. The students are undergoing lot of pressure and find it very difficult to understand the English messages that keep popping up while using the computer with just three years of exposure to English language (from V to VII). It is not only a problem to the student community but also to the teacher community, who has to use the Kannda text (written mainly with English words in Kannada script) to corelate the subject in bilingual mode and make the students understand with their Kannada knowledge. In order to set right the computer education programme the GoK ought to work on war footing to provide facilities to use the English software in Kannada. Otherwise, it will be an another year of trauma for students and have to undergo the same in the coming days and may be for years due to the mismatch of the text and software till it is rectified and the same may be multiplied further when the text books and software adopted for Project Shiksha on the lines of Mahithi Sindhu . This only leads to infructious investment by the Government apart from wastage of efforts by both the students and teachers community.
Another issue that has complicated matters for Microsoft is the Kannada Language Interface Package (lip) that it has developed for the Windows platform. Tejasvi, Kambar and others have accused Microsoft of not caring to consult local language computing experts or linguists while developing lip. In his objection to the Karnataka Government’s mou with the software major, Tejasvi has pointed out, “It seems that the earlier Government programs, which are in force for Kannada software development, were not brought to the knowledge of the it, e-governance and education secretaries before the mou was signed. The officials of the infotech department, which has spent Rs 30 lakh on the Kannada software Nudi, are responsible for this. The department had also issued an order making it mandatory for all departments to install and use Nudi.” Raveesh Gupta, senior product marketing manager, localisation, at Microsoft, contends, however, that they did consult local language experts while developing the software.
While purchasing Nudi software, the it secretary had mentioned that the Government shall purchase only that software which comes with source code. The Karnataka Government owns the Nudi source code but this rule has been given an exemption in the Microsoft mou. The software major has stated that it will not provide support service for Windows 98. What is the purpose of Microsoft installing software in computers which will be used for training under the mou without giving the source code, ask activists. Pradhan’s reply to this is that sharing source code and technical information with governments is an entirely different subject for which they have a separate program. “This program depends on the depth of our engagement with governments and is purely optional for them. We are in talks with Indian state Governments too but it is too early to comment on the same,” Pradhan says.
Gates clearly sees Asia as a hotbed of future growth. And it is rushing to make sure Windows, not Linux, is the operating software of choice. The colossus of Redmond gets just 20 per cent of its sales from the Asia-Pacific region. Asia also represents one of the biggest threats to Microsoft’s global dominance. The appeal of Linux, the low-cost, open-source alternative to Windows, is especially strong in places like China and India.
Speaking about the controversy, Dharam Singh told india today that he has asked his officials “to go through the fine print (of Project Shiksha) with a fine comb”. Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Ramalinga Reddy says, “The drawbacks in the programme, if any, will be reviewed.”
Activists in Bangalore will be waiting. ends
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Dr. URA supported this MOU with MICROSOFT.


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