Supporting the software industry of Bangladesh with Indian cooperation, which is a better alternative for a modern government. The Dhaka Tribune on April announced several new agreements inked between India and Bangladesh. Among the agreements were two of interest to the local Information Technology industry, particularly cooperation in the area of electronics and IT as well as cooperation in the cyber-security field.
COMPUTER SOFTWARE INDUSTRY TRENDS SHAPING UP BANGLADESH’S INDUSTRY
The agreements between Bangladesh and India hopefully would be fulfilled in a way that would allow the IT industry of Bangladesh to progress from its currently being a foreign-independent state, wherein most local IT sales are just re-sales or IT products distribution from multi-national vendors. One key to allow progress for the IT industry of Bangladesh is to put emphasis on the use of open-source, free technology locally, therefore averting the effective tax on the local IT industry that the foreign products represent.
When a local company sells a foreign proprietary software, a huge portion of the income just goes abroad to a foreign software supplier. The software license tax reduces revenue effectively and profit of the local Information Technology industry. On one hand, if the computer has free/open-source software, like the Linux operating system and LibreOffice spreadsheet, word processor, presentation suite, there will be no foreign software payment, and a huge portion of the local Information Technology purchase will stay in the local economy. Open source, free software is pure import substitution given the traditional reliance on imported software, with great possible benefits for Bangladesh.
The concern with a free, open-source software such as LibreOffice or Linux is that nobody has heard of the products and thus they will doubt the capabilities, regardless of the fact that large government organizations such as the French Gendarmerie or the military police migrated 72,000 computers to LibreOffice and Linux. When it comes to cyber-security, a 2014 investigation done by the United Kingdom government found Ubuntu Linux as the desktop operating system that is most secure. A main focus of the deals that have been inked with India must be to make a free, open-source software such as LibreOffice and Linux the default Information Technology solutions at all levels of the government of Bangladesh.
With the software industry growth rate, there are a lot of opportunities to acquire Indian assistance with open-source, free software since India already has taken several steps to inspire or encourage the use of LibreOffice and Linux in the government level. The CDAC or Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in Chennai maintains its own Debian Linux version customized for the Indian market under Bharat Operating System Solution name. As part of the recently signed agreement, the government of Bangladesh must set up at least one center for open-source, free software development and research that is similar to CDAC. The center must be in Dhaka since this is the place that has the most skilled manpower. Furthermore, it would produce a Linux version for use by all the personnel of the Bangladesh government. Additionally, there should also be Linux/LibreOffice training centers opened in every division and later on in every district, with a goal of training all government personnel on how to use LibreOffice and Linux. India also has a National Resource Center for open-source, free software that coordinates work on Linux at CDAC and other academic and research institutions as well.
Moreover, Bangladesh requires a government agency assigned to the exploration of the use of free, open-source software across universities, schools and all government agencies. The software procurement process of the government must specify that free, open-source solutions must always be taken into consideration first as a means of minimizing national dependency on foreign technology vendors. India has such a policy. Tamil Nadu, an Indian state already has begun using Linux on 30,000 computers, saving a lot of money in the costs of software licensing. It’s noteworthy that the word ‘free’ in open source software implies not only free cost but freedom from commercial dependence on multi-national software vendors as well. To put emphasis on this, the founder of the free software movement’s Richard Stallman’s ultimately created Linux is called Free as in Freedom.
As a matter of fact, without computers, it’s impossible to run a modern government, thus it’s not acceptable that sovereign countries such as Bangladesh forever will be cost and freedom. dependent on foreign IT vendors, particularly when the Linux option offers both zero cost and freedom. IT, which evolved from the merger of telecommunications, computers and office automation technologies is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. Furthermore, the industry is one of the essential IT industry components with a worldwide market of $276 billion in 1996. It’s still hugely dependent on human resources and several developing countries are taking advantage of the opportunity. One of the most successful countries in developing its own software industry is India, thus, Bangladesh is looking to boost its local software industry with India’s cooperation.
COMPUTER SOFTWARE INDUSTRY TRENDS SHAPING UP BANGLADESH’S INDUSTRY
The agreements between Bangladesh and India hopefully would be fulfilled in a way that would allow the IT industry of Bangladesh to progress from its currently being a foreign-independent state, wherein most local IT sales are just re-sales or IT products distribution from multi-national vendors. One key to allow progress for the IT industry of Bangladesh is to put emphasis on the use of open-source, free technology locally, therefore averting the effective tax on the local IT industry that the foreign products represent.
When a local company sells a foreign proprietary software, a huge portion of the income just goes abroad to a foreign software supplier. The software license tax reduces revenue effectively and profit of the local Information Technology industry. On one hand, if the computer has free/open-source software, like the Linux operating system and LibreOffice spreadsheet, word processor, presentation suite, there will be no foreign software payment, and a huge portion of the local Information Technology purchase will stay in the local economy. Open source, free software is pure import substitution given the traditional reliance on imported software, with great possible benefits for Bangladesh.
The concern with a free, open-source software such as LibreOffice or Linux is that nobody has heard of the products and thus they will doubt the capabilities, regardless of the fact that large government organizations such as the French Gendarmerie or the military police migrated 72,000 computers to LibreOffice and Linux. When it comes to cyber-security, a 2014 investigation done by the United Kingdom government found Ubuntu Linux as the desktop operating system that is most secure. A main focus of the deals that have been inked with India must be to make a free, open-source software such as LibreOffice and Linux the default Information Technology solutions at all levels of the government of Bangladesh.
With the software industry growth rate, there are a lot of opportunities to acquire Indian assistance with open-source, free software since India already has taken several steps to inspire or encourage the use of LibreOffice and Linux in the government level. The CDAC or Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in Chennai maintains its own Debian Linux version customized for the Indian market under Bharat Operating System Solution name. As part of the recently signed agreement, the government of Bangladesh must set up at least one center for open-source, free software development and research that is similar to CDAC. The center must be in Dhaka since this is the place that has the most skilled manpower. Furthermore, it would produce a Linux version for use by all the personnel of the Bangladesh government. Additionally, there should also be Linux/LibreOffice training centers opened in every division and later on in every district, with a goal of training all government personnel on how to use LibreOffice and Linux. India also has a National Resource Center for open-source, free software that coordinates work on Linux at CDAC and other academic and research institutions as well.
Moreover, Bangladesh requires a government agency assigned to the exploration of the use of free, open-source software across universities, schools and all government agencies. The software procurement process of the government must specify that free, open-source solutions must always be taken into consideration first as a means of minimizing national dependency on foreign technology vendors. India has such a policy. Tamil Nadu, an Indian state already has begun using Linux on 30,000 computers, saving a lot of money in the costs of software licensing. It’s noteworthy that the word ‘free’ in open source software implies not only free cost but freedom from commercial dependence on multi-national software vendors as well. To put emphasis on this, the founder of the free software movement’s Richard Stallman’s ultimately created Linux is called Free as in Freedom.
As a matter of fact, without computers, it’s impossible to run a modern government, thus it’s not acceptable that sovereign countries such as Bangladesh forever will be cost and freedom. dependent on foreign IT vendors, particularly when the Linux option offers both zero cost and freedom. IT, which evolved from the merger of telecommunications, computers and office automation technologies is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. Furthermore, the industry is one of the essential IT industry components with a worldwide market of $276 billion in 1996. It’s still hugely dependent on human resources and several developing countries are taking advantage of the opportunity. One of the most successful countries in developing its own software industry is India, thus, Bangladesh is looking to boost its local software industry with India’s cooperation.
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