Open Source centre to come up in Bengal

Kolkata, Jun 08 (UNI) A regional centre for Open Source Software Development will be set up by the West Bengal government with an investment of Rs two crore.

Speaking to UNI on the sidelines of a seminar on ''Open Document Format(ODF) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)'' organised by Confederation of Indian Industry, State IT Minister Debesh Das said,''We are interested to set up a regional centre for open source software development centre. A budgetary allocation of Rs 2 crore has been approved for this.'' The state government is trying to tie up with a university as its academic partner to take the project forward.

Currently, there is a similar centre in Chennai which has been opened with the Centre's assistance. Free Software Foundation, C-DAC and Anna Malai University has joined hands to set up and run this instutute.

The centre organises various training courses in asociation with Anna Malai university, Free Software Foundation Chairperson Dr Nagarjuna said.

The Centre is experimenting on the use of free softwares for call- centres, he added.

UNI