gii exgal - Sun and free office system software

Does anyone know if this is widely known and used at the grassroots in
India?

Knowledge is power http://www.guardian.co.uk/sbs/story/0,7369,823267,00.html

When Sun Microsystems realised how much they were paying arch rivals
Microsoft for software, they set about creating a free, downloadable office
system. Ben Hammersley explains how they did it

Ben Hammersely
Thursday October 31, 2002
The Guardian

I've paid for most of Bill Gates's garden shed. While the Microsoft chairman
has been busy building his dream techno-home

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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
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gii exgal - lead article on wiring flats yet no radio mention..........

RE:{SIFY#213-843}unable to use my smtp at holisticit.com

GII exgalileo - kindly clarify what satyam 'certified' means fiRE:{SIFY#213-843}unable to use my smtp at holisticit.com

Re: RE:{SIFY#213-843}unable to use my smtp at holisticit.com

Arun Mehta [01/11/02 17:36 +0530]:
> I run an organisation called Holistic IT. We have a website, 
> holisticit.com. I would like to send mail to people using my address 
> arun@... -- so far, this was possible when I used satyam to 
> connect to the Net. Please tell me how my doing this was in any way 
> threatening anybodys' security?

Satyam seems to be taking the easy way out against spam and virii, by
filtering outbound port 25 so all outbound SMTP traffic has to be routed
through their server.

Or is it that when you use satyam's mail relays, you have to use an
 <at> satyam.net.in address?

This sounds like one of the above two (fairly common) occurences.

If #1 - that is more or less SOP among several dialup providers these days.
Earthlink, UUNet, QWest - most dialup ISPs stateside have done this.

If #2 - VSNL seems to have done this, and satyam is following in their
footsteps - and this is not a solution at all.

#1 (port 25 blocks) - you could use an ssh tunnel from windows toyour smtp
server, or have your smtp server listen on another port (typically 587,
though some providers set this up as port 2525, say.

#2 - Switch ISPs, pronto.

I'm actually interested in knowing which of #1 or #2 you arefacing - as I am
considering getting myself Satyam wireless broadband shortly (am back in
Madras from Hong Kong...)

> Oh, and let me also tell you: I will not give up. It would be easy for 
> me to ditch Satyam, and take a connection from an ISP with a 
> technically more adept help desk -- as I'm sure lots of other customers 

You find an ISP with a technically adept helpdesk, great going, do let me
know :)

First level customer support anywhere is much of the same quality I think
(with a few rare exceptions) :)

> >CustomerCare <at> Satyam
> >ISO 9001:2000 Certified

I believe there's an ISO 9001 procedure called "filing a customer
dissatisfier"?  That will get far quicker attention than your way, I think :) 

> >>Hi, I have the domain holisticit.com, and when trying to use my smtp 
> >>server
> >>to send mail, I get "Relay Access denied." Is this some problem at 
> >>your end?

Oh wait.  Before jumping all over satyam customer care - try this

start - run

telnet your.holisticit.smtp.server 25

Do you get mail.holisticit.com or whatever?

Which server throws that relaying denied?  Holisticit or Sify's smtp server?

Which one were you using at the time you tried to send mail?

When reporting such problems PLEASE include a full bounce / error message, it
helps a lot when trying to troubleshoot it.  

	-srs

--

-- 
Suresh Ramasubramanian + suresh < <at> > hserus dot net
EMail Sturmbannfuhrer, Lower Middle Class Sysadmin
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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
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Re: Spam in India... from the Simputer mailing list (xposted)

>>>>> "Arun" == Arun Mehta <arunlists@...> writes:

    Arun> Would your clients be willing to take VSNL to court? Or you?
    Arun> For suffering financial harm? I think we could get the court
    Arun> to ask VSNL to take necessary measures to deny access to
    Arun> spammers (citing appropriate provisions of the IT act and
    Arun> other penal and civil code provisions -- would my cyberlaw
    Arun> friends help here please?)

Glad to report that the VSNL blocks appear to have been removed from
SPEWS.  Presumably they (VSNL) did something about the spammer.

The mills of Government grind slow but they grind exceedingly small.

Regards,

-- Raju

    Arun> I'm serious about this, by the way. I think enough of us are
    Arun> pissed off at spam, that we could get a nice long list of
    Arun> petitioners -- all we need to document is how much download
    Arun> time we spend on spam. Even if we forget the time taken
    Arun> deleting the junk...  Arun At 29-10-02, Raju Mathur wrote:
    Suresh> That, and some poor soul from VSNL who just came into
    Suresh> news.admin.net-abuse.email wondering why 23 of his class C
    Suresh> IP blocks were listed in spews, as "they closed open
    Suresh> relays regularly".  :(
    >>  Tell me about it.  Two servers that I sort of manage are
    >> blocked by SPEWS due to some goddam spammer hosted by VSNL.
    >> SPEWS just blocked a few zillion IPs of VSNL's, my client's IPs
    >> among them.

--

-- 
Raju Mathur               raju@...      http://kandalaya.org/
                      It is the mind that moves
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resident Indians allowed forex accounts

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_95537,0002.htm
Resident Indians can hold forex accounts HTC/Press Trust of India
Mumbai, November .01
In a move towards further liberalisation of foreign exchange facilities, 
the Reserve Bank of India has decided to permit persons resident in India 
to open, hold and maintain a foreign currency account with a licensed bank, 
which is also an authorised dealer.
This account would be known as resident foreign currency (domestic) 
account, the Reserve Bank said in a release on Friday.
At present, a resident in India is permitted to retain up to $2,000 or its 
equivalent — in cash and/or travellers cheques provided the same has been 
acquired — while on a visit to any place outside India by way of payment 
for services, from any person not resident in India or who is on a visit to 
the country, in settlement of any lawful obligations, by way of honorarium 
or gift while on a visit outside India, from any an authorised person for 
travel abroad and representing an unspent amount.
The RBI said foreign exchange acquired from any of these sources could be 
kept in this new account by resident Indians.
Till now residents were necessarily required to surrender foreign exchange 
exceeding $2,000 acquired from any of these sources and convert it into 
Indian rupees.
With the introduction of this facility, resident Indians can either deposit 
the foreign exchange so acquired in the resident foreign currency 
(domestic) account designated in any foreign currency or, at their 
discretion, deposit in a rupee account after conversion.
The balance in resident foreign currency (domestic) account may be used for 
any purpose permissible under current foreign exchange regulations for 
resident Indians (travel, medical treatment abroad, gifts up to $5,000), 
purchase of books directly or through the Internet, education abroad.

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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
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Draft IT Policy of Goa

Anyone wanting a copy of this, please write to me offlist, with the 
subjectline reading DRAFT IT POLICY. Tks, FN

Draft IT Policy of Goa 

Draft Concept to Develop the IT Policy of Goa [September 2002 Ver. 2.2]
September 2002

Overview
------------------------------------------------------------
IT  FOR  ENABLING  MISSION - ORIENTED GOVERNANCE

1. DEFINITIONS

2. IT POLICY
   2.1. Purpose 
   2.2. Mission 
   2.3. Strategy
   2.4. Implementing and Advisory Bodies
        2.4.1. Task Force on IT 
        2.4.2. InfoTech Council 
        2.4.3. Technology Mentoring Board 
        2.4.4. Departments
        2.4.5. Operations and Management related IT Initiatives
        2.4.6. Governance related Initiatives
   2.5. Budget 
        2.5.1. Government Programs
        2.5.2. R&D and Education Programs 
        2.5.3. Incentives, Rewards, Subsidy, and Exemptions 
   2.6. Implementation
        2.6.1. Utilisation
        2.6.2. Bonus 
        2.6.3. Schedule 
        2.6.4. Audit and Certification
        2.6.5. Government of India Guidelines 
   2.7. Designated IT Industry and its Location 
        2.7.1. Registration
        2.7.2. SEZ
        2.7.3. IT Parks
        2.7.4. R&D Parks 
        2.7.5. Zones 

3. IT IN GOVERNMENT 
   3.1. Planning and Governance 
        3.1.1. Mission Development and Mission Focus 
        3.1.2. Integrated Planning 
        3.1.3. Impact Assessment
        3.1.4. Risk Control
   3.2. Operations
        3.2.1. Process and Procedure Simplification
        3.2.2. Throughput Multipliers 
        3.2.3. Cycle Time Managers 
        3.2.4. Remote Transactions 
        3.2.5. Restructuring 
        3.2.6. Merger and Rationalisation 
        3.2.7. Decision Support 
        3.2.8. Public Interface 
        3.2.9. G2G Mission Support 
   3.3. Monitoring and Management 
        3.3.1. Decision Support 
        3.3.2. Project Management 
        3.3.3. Resource Management 
        3.3.4. Process and Transaction Monitoring 
        3.3.5. Document Storage and Security
        3.3.6. Information System

4. IT FOR THE ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
   4.1. Contributions to the State Income 
        4.1.1. IT Promoting Local Business 
        4.1.2. ITES 
        4.1.3. Local Services and Products 
        4.1.4. JIT and Local Business Promotion 
        4.1.5. Investment Fairs and Retreats 
        4.1.6. IT Product Promotion
   4.2. Contributions to Local Capacity, Assets and Infrastructure 
        4.2.1. Goan Business 
        4.2.2. Opportunity Creation Reward 
        4.2.3. Investment Incentive
        4.2.4. Infrastructure 
        4.2.5. Renewable Energy and Power
        4.2.6. Pollution control 
        4.2.7. Accountability 
        4.2.8. Work Culture 
   4.3. Contributions to Local Employment and Entrepreneurship 
        4.3.1. Free Space for Entrepreneurs 
        4.3.2. Business Incubation
        4.3.3. Capability Development Subsidy 
        4.3.4. Long-term Employment Reward 
        4.3.5. R&D Investors
        4.3.6. Skill Databases 
        4.3.7. Reference and Projection Systems 
        4.3.8. Mobile Information Culture 
        4.3.9. Learning Through Experience Culture 

5. IT EDUCATION, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
   5.1. IT Research 
        5.1.1. R&D Parks 
        5.1.2. Strategic Alliance 
        5.1.3. Venture Capital 
        5.1.4. Research Fund 
   5.2. IT Education
        5.2.1. Focus on IT
        5.2.2. Boards of Studies
        5.2.3. Higher Education Through Internships 
        5.2.4. Industry Faculty 

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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
is the oldest non-profit, mass membership organization 
working on social impacts of computer technology.

To learn more, go to http://www.cpsr.org

Indian state Andhra Pradesh goes online (fwd)

From s-asia-it mailing list. FN

---------- Forwarded message ----------

1 November, 2002

Indian state goes online

Omer Farooq 
BBC reporter in Hyderabad 

The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has put all its local 
government services online [http://www.andhrapradesh.com/ ] in an 
attempt to cut red tape. 

The project called SmartGOV will pave the way for online processing 
of official documents through the different levels of bureaucracy. 

Indian bureaucracy is often criticised for long delays in processing 
important files. 

This is believed to be the first project of its kind in India and has 
been developed jointly by the Andhra Pradesh government and a private 
firm - Tata Consultancy Services. 

Other states interested 

The project has taken 15 months to develop, at the cost of nearly 
$5.5m. 

Launching the scheme, Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu said it would 
help make the administration more efficient, transparent and 
accountable. 

He said the project would make it easier to monitor the progress of 
an official document. 

The technology behind the project will be made available to other 
Indian states and countries in the region. 

Officials said it was ready for implementation in Indian-administered 
Kashmir and several other states including Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. 

Plagued by corruption 

The Sri Lankan Government is also keen to implement this project, 
said officials. 

Andhra Pradesh, with a population of 76 million, is often lauded as a 
model for other states for its implementation of information 
technology in government departments. 

But observers say the state still has a long way to go before 
electronic governance is put in place. 

They say that despite several initiatives to use information 
technology in the government, the problems of corruption continue to 
mar the administration. 

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2388763.stm

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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
is the oldest non-profit, mass membership organization 
working on social impacts of computer technology.

To learn more, go to http://www.cpsr.org

Laws... and cyberspace in India

Some interesting comments from Richard M Stallman, Founder of the Free
Software Foundation, who is currently touring India (Bangalore, Goa,
Delhi). These comments from him come in the context of the review of Pavan
Duggal's recent book 'Cyberlaw: The Indian Perspective' and its review by
Dr Madanmohan Rao. FN

On Sun, 3 Nov 2002, Richard Stallman wrote:

> It would be useful for someone to look at the 1999 law in regard to
> how it treats cyberspace forms of civil disobedience--for instance,
> graffiti.  The general tendency is for governments to treat them as
> major crimes and ignore the fact that they are a form of political
> action.
> 
> (Governments are also tending to punish physical forms of civil
> disobedience harshly too, but they do it by falsification of evidence
> and distortion.)

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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) 
is the oldest non-profit, mass membership organization 
working on social impacts of computer technology.

To learn more, go to http://www.cpsr.org