The Free Software Foundation of India (FSFI) is the Indian sister organisation to the US-based

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

. It was founded in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

(Trivandrum) (the capital of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

) in 2001 as a

non-profit Company A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. The FSFI advocates to promote the use and development of free software in India. This includes educating people about

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

, including how it can help the

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

of a developing country like

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. FSF India regards non-free software as not a solution, but a problem to be solved. Free software is sometimes locally called swatantra software in India. In 2003, after meeting with FSF founder

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( ; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

, the President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam urged Indian computer scientists and professionals to use free and

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

in research and development.Opt for open source codes for better software security: Kalam
/ref>

Logo

The left side of the FSF India logo resembles the famed

Ashoka Chakra The Ashoka Chakra (Transl: Ashoka's wheel) is an Indian symbol which is a depiction of the dharmachakra (English: "wheel of dharma"). It is so-called because it appears on a number of edicts of Ashoka the Great, most prominent among which is ...

, that also appears on the Indian national flag, while its right half is a depiction of a

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

. The combination of both

symbols A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise different concep ...

is intended to draw attention to the similarity between political freedom and

, the latter of which the FSF promotes. The

, in addition to being a long-standing

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

symbol depicting the ''wheel of time'', also resembles Charkha of India's Freedom Struggle and thus in the current context, may symbolize the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

which resulted in India's freedom from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

occupation.

References

External links

Free Software Foundation of India

A LinuxJournal interview with FSF-India team members

Slashdot
an

articles (dated 2002) regarding Stallman's visit to India.
Slashdot
an

articles (dated 2002) regarding Dr. Kalam's endorsement of free software.
A Blue-GNU interview: FSF India's Impact Far-Reaching
{{DEFAULTSORT:Free Software Foundation Of India Free Software Foundation Organisations based in Thiruvananthapuram Software industry in India Information technology organisations based in India Organizations established in 2001 2001 establishments in Kerala

Logo

See also

References

External links