

AICTE rescinds Microsoft Office 365 mandate - bugsbunny4341
http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/college-and-university/aicte-rescinds-microsoft-office-365-mandate/article4698205.ece?homepage=true

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denzil_correa
On May 1, "IT for change" had drafted a letter and requested AICTE to cancel
agreement with Microsoft and replace it with FOSS alternatives [0].

The primary concern of a regulatory body should be commitment to welfare
without prejudices. Such decisions should be proactively taken without need
for repeated requests/jibes by the entities of the regulatory body.

In this case, AICTE has failed to live up to it's responsibilities. AICTE
failed to see the points written in the letter by FSF/IT for change and even
if it did it overlooked it. It behaved in the typical babudom mode where they
tried to "push" till they could not and based the decision on reasons apart
from merit

[0] [http://www.gnu.org.in/news/it-for-change-requests-aicte-
the-...](http://www.gnu.org.in/news/it-for-change-requests-aicte-the-
agreement-with)

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mukundmr
I am happy that the voice of the public was heard. AICTE needs to be
reorganized into a more transparent and accountable organization.

~~~
denzil_correa
> I am happy that the voice of the public was heard

It was inconsistent with the open standards norm as specified in the National
Information Technology Policy, 2012. Not a strong case of public voice being
hard.

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shared4you
The article mentions National Information Technology Policy, 2012. I found the
PDF [1]. Here's the text:

Objective III. 15: To adopt Open standards and promote open source and open
technologies.

Bullet 6.6: To promote open standards and open technologies.

Clearly, the Microsoft deal doesn't comply with these.

[1]: (PDF)
[http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/National_20...](http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/National_20IT_20Policyt%20_20.pdf)

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peterkelly
Let me guess, they discovered another leap year bug?

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helloamar
I'm glad they understood.

