Kalam champions open source

PUNE: Dedicating the Pune-based Institute of Information Technology (I2IT) to the nation, President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam said that the future challenges in IT would entail looking for open source codes so that users' built security algorithms could be easily introduced.

He was speaking at the dedication ceremony of I2IT, a Rs 35 crore institute set by Hope Foundation and Research Centre (of the Finolex group) for advanced education and research in IT. " India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions. Open source codes need to be built which would be cost effective for the entire society. In India, open source code software has come to stay and I2IT had a big role to play in this national mission," he asserted.

The President warned that relying only on software might not be the best strategy for future. India should emerge not only as a software industry but also as an ICT industry with equal strength in software, hardware, embedded systems design, integration and total end to the end solutions, he argued.

According to Dr Kalam, IT and knowledge workers have got a tremendous responsibility to contribute in the areas of tele-medicine, tele-education and e-governance for rural areas. "I believe that governments, industry and academia can take the issue of increasing the domestic IT segment through strong and sustainable use of IT for education and health care by brining out a roadmap," he said.

The Indian IT industry currently employs 500,000 people earning $ 10 billion, which is less than one per cent of the world market. AT the same time, a typical international software company with 50,000 employees earns $ 20 billion through its worldwide operations.

"Based on the current record, if we have to reach $ 80 billion, we will have to multiply our workforce eight times which may not make our operations competitive. Hence our software industry will have to move up the value chain and come up with innovative products that will sweep the world," said Dr Kalam.

The president also suggested the development of language independent search engines. "One of the ingredients for a country to become a developed nation is that its languages must also be developed in a digital era.