Here's a development that we read about and are quite perplexed with the details of the report. Apparently, the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) has some glorious plans in the making. No ICBM, no nothing. These guys are on to making an 'Indian Operating System' (yes that is what it is named as), providing a rather questionable justification for the project.
DRDO's Director-General VK Saraswat suggests that India is very dependent on foreign operating systems, such as Windows and Linux. The Director-General perhaps does not realise that no one really owns Linux. The concept offoreign vs Indian does not apply to open source software, including Linux. It is entirely possible to take the Linux core and build something extremely robust and strong on top of it.
He added that these (the so-called foreign operating systems) tend to compromise cyber safety and are susceptible to worms and other security issues. Which is why, he claims, it is necessary for India to build its own OS. It would be very surprisingly if our mission critical defence systems are not already running an OS thoroughly tested for security holes. So what is this Indian Operating System supposed to achieve? For common citizens it means nothing - there are plenty of free and robust open source OSes to choose from already, if one is paranoid about digital security. On a related note, India already has a desi OS called BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) with support for Indian languages. If the Indian Operating System is being developed for defence use, sure, that's a different matter. But why are we not already on a secure OS (of whatever platform) ?
Apparently, DRDO has already spent 18 months to develop the OS with 150 engineers working on it. Could these skilled engineers have spent their time on critical tasks, say building systems for intelligence gathering? Judging that is beyond the scope of TechTree, but the answer seems fairly obvious. This "Indian Operating System" (no points for creativity), which will need 3 more years to possibly be ready seems like the desi fad being taken too far.
Saraswat also added that India should also manufacture its own hardware, as currently all transmitter / receivers are being imported. Good. Next, let's take over the world. Then, nothing would be foreign.
