The concept of Free Software, wherein knowledge is created by the community for the community, without being driven by commercial interests, must be extended to research to solve problems in health care, agriculture, energy and safe drinking water, the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the three-day National Convention for Academics and Research on ‘Computing freedom for technology, education and research,' organised by the Free Software Movement of India (FSMI), a national coalition of regional free software movements, on the Mahindra Satyam campus here on Thursday.
Mr. Kalam implored scientists, researchers and academics to embrace the ‘open source philosophy' in their respective fields, and work towards building ‘open source networks' that can help pool talent, research and know-how from around the world. Such a platform can help evolve scientific solutions to problems, particularly those relevant to developing countries.
“Why don't Free Software movements come together to create a network of experts to work on providing free drinking water,” he asked the audience.
A valuable open source movement initiated in the Indian health care sector is the Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD), a consortium led by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
In the wake of the failure of market forces in this sector, the OSDD is exploring new models of drug discovery and looking at innovative patent regimes, Mr. Kalam said.
“Market forces discourage research-based pharmaceutical companies from developing drugs for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or malaria that predominantly affect the developing world. It would be naive to expect drug discovery for infectious diseases to become a lucrative standard business model,” he explained.
So where the existing patent-driven models have failed, the OSDD provides an alternative way of looking at Intellectual Property as a tool of research.
“It is currently working on optimising a patented molecule as a drug. OSDD plans to use this patent to ensure the drugs are affordable in the market, by ensuring non-exclusive licensing. This is an innovative way of using patents to the benefit of poor patients,” Mr. Kalam said.
He also alluded to the success of Android, the open mobile operating system that has revolutionised mobile communication.
Freedom in research
West Bengal Minister for Information Technology Debesh Das emphasised on the importance of freedom and independence in research. K. Gopinath of the Indian Institute of Science spoke about why free code is critical in science, citing examples of Free Software such as Muscle and Hammer used in genetic science that have made a huge difference by allowing for collaborative research.
The convention, which has over 500 professors, academics and researchers participating, hosts workshops and tutorials offering training in FOSS technologies in scientific and technological domains. It aims at creating awareness on GNU/Linux software tools used in research.
Keywords: free software, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, FSMI, open source software
Comments:
What Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam tells is the guideline. Professionals need to come opting STEM culture wherein Science, Technology, Environment and Management are taken in one cell to deal with the situation. It is this approach, being placed in the socket of game theory of NASH, that gives security and coins in one go for developed countries. However in India, things are different. What is heard from people in presence of Dr. Kalam is one thing and what comes in lime light after performance in the fields are altogether different. Promotion of emotion beyond a limit is not permissible in a developing country like India. Further the system as a whole deserves coordination, for people like Dr. Kalam are there to support.
Promotion of emotion beyond a limit is not possible in India. I truly agree to this comment.Take any field like education or engineering career people look forward in fear about the future. Even after getting a job , the next move is how to move to a more earning job and settle somewhere rather than contributing to the soceity by work.
Yes, this is really a nice initiative made by former president of India. Such type of statement specially by High profile people will let the software market fare and free. It will boost up the competent software to prevent monopolistic application vendors. As I am an IGNOU final year student doing MBA project on this topic, I feel open-source software will change the scenario. It is having great potential to compete in the market.
Yes true. It is similar concept like Vedas. Knowledge is for the sake of Knowledge only.And the aim of this knowledge should be freedom. It is not only merely emotion, It is way of looking towards any matters. Indian mind is not at all commercial mind. So in technical field this concept also approaches. We have brain, we have material also. Then why should we depend upon someone other? We are able to create our own platform, that is what respected Kalam said.
The words of wisdom emanated from a rare personality like Dr.A.P.J.AbdulKalam are seldom heeded by a major section of scientists and persons in authority.The greed for money and power take them and also the nation to disaster.
If every scientist in India were like Dr.Kalam, India would have been a differnt heaenly place. But unfortunately it is not so. When we talk about Indian ethics and culture, in ancient times, it was the bounden duty of the kings to encourage and look after not only scientists, but also exponents in all art forms. With the change in the system, these people have to make money to survive. So loyalty goes first to Goddess Lakshmi and one looks always to new pastures. If the governments, in any country, can take care of the scientists and artistes (without prejudice and reservations) and provide the reqired technology, we can achieve wonders. Ofourse we also have to eradicate the culture of corruption iniiated by the present political system.