Will India have it's own OS?

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 11 October 2010, 15:06 IST
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Will India have it's own OS?
Bangalore: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is working on creating a futuristic computing system, including India's own operating system. Two software engineering centres are being set up for this purpose in Bangalore and New Delhi and 25 scientists at each of these centres are working towards it. "We do not have our own operating system. Today, various bodies, including banks and defence establishments, need security. Having our own operating system will help us prevent hacking of our systems," said V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and DRDO Director-General. Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Centre for Development of Telematics, besides universities and industries are in touch for the fulfillment of the project. Citing security reasons, he refused to provide details of organisations involved in the project. The new operating system would also have commercial use. Saraswat also said that it was fairly a costly affair, without elaborating on the timeframe. "There are many gaps in our software areas; particularly we don't have our own operating system," said Saraswat, also Director General of DRDO and Secretary, Defence R & D. India currently uses operating systems developed by western countries.In today's world where you have tremendous requirements of security on whatever you do, economy, banking or defence, it's essential that you need to have an operating system," he said. Referring to reports of cyber attacks in recent times and "susceptibility" of internet, he noted instances of "data taken away by adversaries". We have to protect our data and the only way to protect it is to have a home-grown system, the complete architecture source code is with you and then nobody knows what's that. Saraswat also said the DRDO has put in place a "complete framework" on the proposed commercial arm, which is currently in the process of securing necessary government approvals and is expected to be operational next year. This arm would customize and provide to the civil population the spin-offs of defence technologies through select industry partners, which would be production agencies.

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