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The President of India about Free & Open Source

On May 28th 2003, President of India, Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam, had the following to say in his speech at the dedication function at the International Institute of Information Technology:

Think different

"I would like to narrate an event that took place in Rashtrapati Bhavan a few months back when I met Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft. While walking in the Mughal garden, we were discussing the future challenges in Information Technology including the issues related to software security. I made a point that we look for open source codes so that we can easily introduce the users built security algorithms. Our discussions became difficult since our views were different.
The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions. Further spread of IT which is influencing the daily life of individuals would have a devastating effect on the lives of society due to any small shift in the business practice involving these proprietory solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open source software need to be built which would be cost effective for the entire society.

In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people."

Click here to read the entire speech

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