As Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam went for a walk in Delhi's Mughal Gardens one sunny November day three years ago, Kalam, in his inimitable, passionate way, underlined the importance of educating small children to the world's richest man. One of the first things Gates did was announce a $20 million (Rs 90 crore) initiative, Project Shiksha. Two years later, Microsoft India signed an mou with the Karnataka government to ensure access to and training in latest computer technologies.

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BENEFACTOR OR BENEFICIARY? Gates' gesture is under scrutiny

A year later, that project looks likely to be mired in controversies-prime among them being that it will allow an MNC to monopolise the minds of children. Sahitya Akademi award winner K.P. Poornachandra Tejasvi says he does not want the Government to be tied to one company while well-known playwright Chandrashekhar Kambar says it will come in the way of multilateral education, with Microsoft even being given the right to prepare the curriculum. Microsoft aims to reach out to over four lakh students and over 20,000 teachers in government schools, from classes III to XII, over a five-year MoU period in Karnataka alone, while nationally it plans to train 3.5 million children and about 80,000 teachers in the same period. The MoU entails the setting up of three Microsoft it Academy centres in Bangalore, Gulbarga and Dharwad to deliver teacher training, create a localised it curriculum for students, start teacher and student scholarships and set up a teachers' portal.

On the face of it, the Microsoft proprietary software comes free for Project Shiksha. But protesters point to the fine print in the MoU's clause II.2 that says that the state government will set up three it academies in "a central location" of Bangalore, Dharwad and Gulbarga and give it to Microsoft for a nominal annual charge of Re 1 to run for five years. It also specifies that the government will provide a 1,000-2,000 sq ft building with "electricity, running water, sewer, security and maintenance staff and phone and/or lease lines". Adds Tejasvi: "The Government assures that it will regularly supply students for the it academies, which is like saying that we will supply regular customers for Microsoft. This means the government has to shell out crores of rupees of taxpayers' money to help Microsoft carry out its philanthropy."

In response, Nandu Pradhan, director, public sector, Microsoft, says that the project is a joint partnership with the Karnataka Government wherein it provides space to set up the IT Academy centres. "We want to take it education to the grassroots level," he adds. "We have trained more than 14,000 teachers and reached out to nearly seven lakh students in Phase I of Project Shiksha in India."

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IN A FIX: Former Microsoft India MD Rajiv Kaul (centre) with state officials

After Tejasvi wrote to the then Karnataka additional chief secretary and development commissioner Chiranjiv Singh on the issues involved, the latter admitted that the matter was an eye-opener and asked his men to take appropriate action. US-based Nova Group CEO and President, Venkat M. Kumaraswamy has petitioned both state Chief Minister Dharam Singh and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda on the issue, pointing out that training only in Microsoft products would mean restricting job opportunities later. Kumaraswamy says the correct approach is to teach children with total open source solutions so that they become marketable once out of school. He adds that he is not against Microsoft products, but only against the Government's one-vendor policy.

Another issue that has complicated matters for Microsoft is the Kannada Language Interface Package (LIP) that it has developed for the Windows platform. Tejasvi, Kambar and others have accused Microsoft of not consulting local language computing experts while developing LIP. In his objection to the Karnataka Government's MoU with the software major, Tejasvi has pointed out, "It seems that the earlier Government programs, which are in force for Kannada software development, were not brought to the knowledge of the it, education and e-governance secretaries before the MoU was signed. The officials of the Infotech Department, which has spent Rs 30 lakh on the Kannada software Nudi, are responsible for this. The department had also issued an order making it mandatory for all departments to install and use Nudi." Raveesh Gupta, senior product marketing manager, localisation, at Microsoft, contends, however, that they did consult local language experts while developing the software.

While purchasing Nudi, the IT secretary had mentioned that the Government would purchase only that software which came with the source code. This rule has been given an exemption in the Microsoft MoU. The software major has stated that it will not provide support service for Windows 98. Why has Microsoft installed software in computers which will be used for training under the MoU without giving the source code, ask activists. Pradhan's reply to this is that sharing source code and technical information with governments is an entirely different subject for which they have a separate program. "This program depends on the depth of our engagement with governments and is purely optional for them. We are in talks with Indian state governments too but it is too early to comment on the same," Pradhan says.

Gates clearly sees Asia as a hotbed of future growth. And it is rushing to make sure Windows, not Linux, is the operating software of choice. The appeal of Linux, seen by many as a low-cost, open-source alternative to Windows, is especially strong in places like China and India.

Speaking about the controversy, Dharam Singh told India Today that he has asked his officials "to go through the fine print of Project Shiksha with a toothcomb". Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Ramalinga Reddy says, "The drawbacks in the programme, if any, will be reviewed."

Activists in Bangalore will be waiting.

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