Latest news with #FOSS
New Indian Express
6 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
VS Achuthanandan's vision powered Kerala's free and open software revolution
KOCHI: While V S Achuthanandan is primarily remembered for his long and impactful political career, his legacy also profoundly shaped Kerala's engagement with the global Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement. His deep-rooted communist ideology, with its inherent opposition to monopoly and proprietary control, found a natural and powerful ally in the FOSS philosophy. VS came into contact with the proponents of free software during his time as LDF convener, when E K Nayanar was the chief minister, from 1996 to 2001. Krishnadas Menon, a former SFI leader with Thrissur Engineering College and an active member of the People's Planning Campaign (PPC), revealed that the initiative to network local bodies in Kerala sparked the idea of using free software as a political tool. According to Das, it was the late Joseph Thomas, a BSNL staff member and union leader of the National Federation of P&T Employees (NFPTE), who approached VS with concerns about using proprietary software. Thomas warned that it would compromise the decentralised campaign's underlying politics, lead to royalty issues, and burden the government. 'VS trusted Thomas, whom he had known for years through NFPTE. The communist ideology resonated with the politics behind supporting the free software movement and VS asked us to brief the party secretariat. He associated himself with it ever since,' Das pointed out. Meanwhile, Kerala's free software movement gained momentum from around 1996, with various groups organising meetings and conferences on the topic. A pivotal event was the 'Freedom First!' conference held in Thiruvananthapuram in July 2001, where Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project, inaugurated the Free Software Foundation of India (FSF India). Joseph C Mathew, former IT advisor to the chief minister during Achuthanandan's tenure, said, 'Free software was chosen due to its politics. We approached many political leaders in the state, but it was VS who took interest and championed it. As a result, free software was incorporated into the general education curriculum. And it has now become an integral part of our governance. VS' support gave free software visibility at the national level too.'
Time of India
19-07-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Over 5,000 snakes rescued in six months across Telangana
Hyderabad: Friends of Snakes Society (FOSS), in collaboration with the Telangana forest department, rescued 5,954 snakes across Telangana between Jan 1 and June 30 this year. Of these, 3,337 were venomous and 2,617 non-venomous, with all safely relocated to forest habitats after identification. The majority of venomous snakes rescued were Spectacled Cobras (2,970), followed by Russell's Vipers (344) and Common Kraits (23). Non-venomous species included Indian Rat Snakes, Checkered Keelbacks, Bronzeback Tree Snakes, Indian Rock Pythons, Red Sand Boas, and Barred Wolf Snakes. The organisation, which marked its 30th anniversary on June 30, also conducted over 200 awareness sessions in schools, colleges, forest and police academies, and rural areas during the same period. The workshops reached over 40,000 people, focusing on snake ecology, encounter safety, first aid for snake bites, and debunking myths. You Can Also Check: Hyderabad AQI | Weather in Hyderabad | Bank Holidays in Hyderabad | Public Holidays in Hyderabad To mark three decades of operations and in the run-up to World Snake Day on July 16, FOS announced 'Snakebite Mitigation Initiative', aimed at curbing snakebite deaths in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by 2030. As part of the initiative, FOS will launch a new public website, on July 16. The platform will offer a 24/7 snake identification cell, first-aid protocols, a venomous snake distribution map, and a hospital locator for bite victims. 'Snakebite is a preventable public health issue. Through this initiative, we hope to bridge the information gap and save lives,' said Avinash Visvanathan, general secretary, Friends of Snakes Society.
The Hindu
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Ensure govt. uses open source software, says report
A report by professors from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) recommended that open source software should be promoted with greater institutional support from the government, such as by ensuring that existing policies to promote the procurement of open source software should be enforced, and grants should be provided to open source contributors. The report lays out a case for greater proliferation of free open source software (FOSS), by citing examples from different parts of industry which rely on it. Open source software, unlike proprietary software, is developed and modified by the programming community, and generally made available freely to other developers. Open source technologies are common in even proprietary software, as companies and digital systems grow more and more complex. In fact, companies that work primarily on building digital tools and services tend to rely very heavily on FOSS. 'Our study indicates that for the organisations we studied, there is a clear preference for FOSS and it dominates their technology stack, though there may be other types of software that are employed for specific use cases,' the report said. 'Email services and internally used applications are two categories wherein we noticed the use of proprietary software in an otherwise FOSS-oriented organisation.' The study 'specifically recommends changes to procurement guidelines, making procuring FOSS solutions the norm,' it says, and 'imparting Information and Communications Technology [ICT] education in schools using FOSS'. e-governance systems In 2015, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (now a Ministry) put out the framework for the adoption of open source software in e-governance systems, a document that remains in force. However, procurement remains skewed towards proprietary platforms. At a discussion following the report's launch, economist Renuka Sane indicated that officials tended to choose this route as it would be easier to assign responsibility if a cyber incident occurred. An exception in that framework was also carved out for vendors to avoid using FOSS if they had a justification. 'Since the publication of this framework a decade ago, the use of FOSS in industry has soared exponentially and reliable FOSS-based solutions are available for almost every type of software requirement,' the study said. 'Hence, it is recommended that the guidelines be modified to make procurement of FOSS solutions mandatory when they are available, and the closed-source software should be permitted for specialised or exceptional cases wherein FOSS alternatives are not available.' 'We recommend that the government provide grants to encourage contributions to specific FOSS projects. These can take a variety of forms, such as directly funding universities. It is worth noting that popular FOSS projects such as the BSD Unix and PostgreSQL database were developed at universities.' The study was led by Arul George Scaria, co-director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Research and Advocacy at NLSIU. Suryaprakash Mishra, a professor of social sciences at NLSIU; Shubham Shinde, a technology policy researcher, and Rashi Singhal, an academic fellow at NLSIU, were the other authors of the study.
India Today
28-06-2025
- Business
- India Today
IIT Bombay's Spoken Tutorial now a global standard for digital learning
India's EdTech sector just made history. The Spoken Tutorial pedagogy developed by IIT Bombay has officially been recognised as a global IEEE standard -- a first for the country. Titled IEEE P2955, the new standard lays down best practices for designing tutorials that are scalable, self-paced and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world's largest technical professional organisation, known for setting global standards across a wide range of engineering and technology Spoken Tutorial model, which already powers digital skilling programmes across Indian schools, colleges and rural setups, has now been validated on the world IS THE SPOKEN TUTORIAL PEDAGOGY? Spoken Tutorial is a multi-award-winning educational platform developed by Professor Kannan Moudgalya and his team at IIT offers self-paced, script-based video tutorials in over 20 Indian languages, allowing anyone with a computer and internet access to learn various Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) -- anytime, anywhere, and in the language of their tutorials are being used by more than 1,000 institutions across India and have already trained over 9 million learners, especially in schools, colleges and rural can also take end-of-course online tests and earn certificates, which help improve placement chances and the same approach has received the IEEE P2955 standard tag under the title 'Recommended Practice for Creating Self-Learning Tutorials and Side-by-Side Learning.'WHY THIS MATTERSadvertisementThe approval, finalised on June 19, 2025 by the IEEE Standards Association, is a milestone not just for IIT Bombay but also for India's growing presence in global EdTech innovation.'This proves that homegrown education models can set global benchmarks,' said IIT Bombay Director Prof. Shireesh B. Moudgalya called it a win for equity in education: 'This is a validation of our vision that high quality education can reach every learner, no matter where they are.'The standard took four years of global collaboration, involving around 20 experts from different countries who met monthly to build and review NEXT?The standard will soon be released for global adoption. With tutorials already translated in over 20 Indian languages, the model is likely to drive future education policy, especially in areas of digital literacy, vocational training, and tech skilling.- EndsMust Watch
Arabian Post
16-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
EdgeCortix's SAKURA‑II Elevates Raspberry Pi 5 with On‑Device Generative AI
EdgeCortix has launched its SAKURA‑II M.2 AI accelerator for the Raspberry Pi 5 and other Arm‑based platforms, enabling high‑performance, energy‑efficient execution of generative AI at the device edge. With 60 TOPS and 30 TFLOPS performance within an 8–10 W power envelope, the SAKURA‑II module supports advanced models including Llama 2, Stable Diffusion, Vision Transformers and VLMs on compact, affordable hardware. Dr Sakyasingha Dasgupta, EdgeCortix founder and CEO, highlighted that the integration 'opens the door for innovators and enterprises around the world to build smarter, faster, and more efficient edge AI‑driven devices'. This remark underscores a clear strategic pivot: migrating AI workloads away from cloud dependence and embedding them directly into low‑power devices. Venture partner Sailesh Chittipeddi echoed this view, emphasising the appeal for IoT and edge application engineers seeking scalability without datacentre overhead. The core of SAKURA‑II is EdgeCortix's DNA architecture, offering high memory bandwidth—up to 68 GB/s—and support for dual-channel LPDDR4x. This combination optimises batch‑1 inferencing for real‑time AI tasks while maintaining minimal latency and maximised compute utilisation. ADVERTISEMENT Market response has been mixed. It's FOSS notes the roughly US $349 price tag for the M.2 module, with no explicit mention of shipping costs, urging buyers to clarify before purchase. A TechPowerUp forum debate revealed cost‑sensitive hobbyists comparing it to a US $130 AI HAT offering about 26 TOPS. One user characterised SAKURA‑II as 'on another completely different ballpark' due to its RAM and bandwidth advantages for advanced applications. For industrial users, particularly those operating in space‑weight‑power‑cost constrained environments such as drones, robotics, smart agriculture or security, SAKURA‑II's offline capabilities are pivotal. By enabling autonomous AI without cloud reliance, organisations can enhance resilience and reduce latency in mission‑critical operations. Academic research on efficient edge deployment reinforces this evolution. A paper from June 10, 2025 demonstrated quantised YOLOv4‑Tiny object detection on Raspberry Pi 5, achieving 28.2 ms inference per image at 13.85 W power consumption. While this study used CPU‑based INT8 quantisation, the performance and consumption metrics set a baseline that illustrates SAKURA‑II's potential leap in efficiency and speed via dedicated silicon acceleration. EdgeCortix's positioning also aligns with wider trends in AI hardware development. Their DNA technology enables dynamic reconfiguration and mixed‑precision processing approximating FP32 accuracy—important for generative AI workloads that balance performance with model fidelity. Partners like SoftBank and Renesas have emphasised the importance of this co‑design approach, blending hardware IP with compiler‑driven software stacks to reduce TCO and accelerate time‑to‑market. Industry analysts see SAKURA‑II and similar accelerators as closing the gap between cloud‑scale AI and embedded edge use cases. By supporting multi‑billion‑parameter models on hand‑held devices, they suggest a future where even small autonomous systems can perform complex tasks like content generation, language parsing and computer vision locally—without connectivity or latency constraints. However, barriers remain. The ~$349 entry price may deter hobbyists and small‑scale developers, contrasted with cheaper model‑specific HAT solutions. Adoption may hinge on use case value—where the benefits of on‑device Generative AI outweigh acquisition and integration costs. Enterprise rollouts will need to consider software support, model compatibility, and real‑world inference benchmarks – details which are pending independent testing. EdgeCortix provides MERA, its compiler and runtime platform, enabling developers to deploy models across heterogeneous Edge AI systems, signalling strong software ecosystem support. This software‑hardware synergy contrasts with many accelerators that must rely on limited driver support or manual optimisation. The extension to Raspberry Pi 5 is significant. As one of the most accessible single‑board computers, Pi 5 offers a global developer base and extensive community support. Pairing it with SAKURA‑II could catalyse novel applications—from mobile robotics and decentralised AI devices to educational platforms that illustrate advanced AI concepts. Going forward, key indicators to watch will include independent benchmark results, broader platform support, and commercial deployments in agriculture, defence, and industrial automation. The ROI calculation will depend on whether the performance and efficiency gains translate into measurable gains—lower energy costs, reduced latency, or enhanced autonomy.
