BOSS – Bharat Operating System Solutions : Wake Up My Brothers and Sisters …

To all Indians,

Mr Sudhakar Kashyap of Mumbai formed a group of genuine social workers and RTI activists to discuss on various social issues.

I joined this group from 4th meeting with my colleague Pralhad, in Chabildas High School, Dadar, Mumbai-28, on 11 July 2015 evening. Chief Guest was (Retired ) Justice and now well known practicing lawyer in Mumbai High Court – Shree V P Patil.

I gave a discourse on India’s own  Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS), an Indianised Linux Version (www.bosslinux.in) and expressed my concern regarding the exploitation of our country in IT field by the Proprietary Software Companies, especially Microsoft. I also informed about the deliberate side tracking of BOSS which is a perfect replacement for MS Windows and it has resulted in huge misuse of public funds since BOSS is absolutely free. I stated that there was an urgent need of social awareness and a well planned strategy to remove Microsoft which has locked our country in a danger zone.

I suggested that we should cut the stem i.e.  we should remove Microsoft from our Education System and it would vanish from our country soon. A Public Interest Litigation would be a perfect answer for the same.

After the lecture the group whole heartedly supported me. In the concluding speech, Justice Patil advised the social workers to work honestly and with devotion and he himself would give the legal guidance without any fees, provided the issue is genuine and for a social cause and without any personal interest. He stunned all of us by announcing that the PIL against government of India to remove Microsoft and Other Proprietary Software from the curriculum  is to be filed by our group immediately as he was convinced by the documents I shown and the views I expressed in the discourse and that he would represent the case himself…

Consequently the PIL was submitted on 05/08/15 as a result of great efforts taken by respected Patil Sir…..

Sir/Madam, Your case is filed in Bombay High Court on 2015-08-06 11:28:58,
Case Stamp Number is PIL/21299/2015 And CIN No is 01006212992015

CASE NUMBER	PIL/21299/2015
PETITIONER	MILIND S. OKA
V/S
RESPONDENT	THE UNION OF INDIA THROUGH THE SECRETARY AND ANR

Prayer and Relief Sought :

Remove Microsoft and Other Proprietary Products from Curriculum (and hence from the country)

with immediate effect as per the official policy of government of India.

Unfortunately, Indian government is acting against its own policies !

Although many media and channel reporters were present in the lecture, only Sakal
Investigating team realized the gravity and showed interest in the matter. Kunal Jadhav from Sakal Investigating Team studied the matter in depth with number of sittings with me and drafted three articles.On 19 August 2015 the first of the three articles on BOSS was published
in Sakal Mumbai Edition on front page ..

I am thankful to Vishwas Hajirnis (Important feeds including BOSS site),  Gurumurthy Kasinathan (IT for Change site), Neeta Dumbre (Letter Drafting), Padmashree Kumar Ketkar (senior journalist and media expert) for his guidance and active participation in raising the issue in C-DAC, Pune Conference, Prakash Bal (Senior Journalist), Achyut Godbole (IT expert), Sudhakar Kashyap and our RTI group, Anil Shaligram (Social Activists), Kunal Jadhav and his Sakal Team.

I am thankful to my SIWS college colleagues, Pralhad, Uma, Arti,  Anuradha, Tanuja, Hemsunder, Bharti, Manjiri, Padmavati, Kanchan, Dilip, Jagruti Desai, Jagruti Joshi, Milind Thakur (Networking, IT LAB) and all other SIWS college Staff,I cannot mention all the names here.

Thanks to BOSS Torrent Seeders Team (for seeding day and night at the time when the BOSS site was down) : Vishwas Hajirnis, Taruna Badani, Rajendra Danole, Abhijit Oka, Anand Oka, Pralhad C. 

Prof Sandeep, Prof Mrs Manisha Oka, Prof Makarand Oka (From R J College, Mumbai).

Thanks to Prof V K Vaze, Prof Chakradeo (Resource Persons in Teacher’s Training Program where I was a teacher-student) and Prof Mathew Martin (Mumbai University) for their encouragement.

Finally, hats off to my Guru Repected Patil Sir.

Sakal team is all set to publish second article when the PIL comes for hearing.Now the issue is not mine, it belongs to everyone who loves our country and also of FOSS lovers around the world. We all should work together and get rid of the slavery of proprietary softwares companies, especially Microsoft.Let us fight for the second freedom once again…Please send link of this blog and my virtual petition link to as many Indians as possible. There is a great need of national and international publicity of this issue as suggested by Prof Mathew Martin (Mumbai, India).

Thanks.

—- Milind Oka

If you do not agree with me, kindly go through the following document (Annexture A, in our PIL) which I obtained from MHRD through RTI …  It may change your opinion…

MHRD Notification With Ref No.

Please sign my on Virtual Petition :  Honorable PM Modiji Please Implement BOSS.