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Indian state looks to open source for education
Boosting IT literacy rate with Red Hat

By Aaron Tan

Published: Friday 29 June 2007

India's Kerala state government is counting on open source software to boost its IT literacy rate.

The Kerala government has identified free and open source software (FOSS) as a major strategic component in its efforts to build an inclusive information society.

Kerala Chief Minister V. S. Achutanandan said in a statement: “Kerala has always been a leader in literacy and now we want to make Kerala a leader in e-literacy."

He added: "We believe that free and open source software is an essential component in our drive to democratise information technology and bring its benefits to all sections of society.”

The Indian state is partnering with Red Hat to train the technical staff of various government organisations as well as school teachers on desktop Linux and other open source applications. The Linux vendor will also work with the state government to promote Kerala as a global destination for developing open source software.

Commenting on Kerala's move toward open source, Nandkumar Pradhan, president and managing director of Red Hat India, said: "The Kerala government has taken a very progressive step in choosing open source software. The freedom, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of open source helps governments maximise their IT budgets."

Kerala is the latest Indian state to widely support the use of open source software in schools and government departments, another being Tamil Nadu, which embarked on a plan in January to put Linux in government offices, schools and villages.

Aaron Tan writes for ZDNet Asia