 | |
| Abbreviation | FSFI |
|---|---|
| Formation | 20 July 2001 (24 years ago) (2001-07-20) |
| Type | Charitable organization |
| Headquarters | Kerala,India |
Region served | India |
| Affiliations | FSF* network[1][failed verification] |
| Website | fsf |
TheFree Software Foundation of India (FSFI) is the Indian sister organisation to the US-basedFree Software Foundation. It was founded inThiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) (the capital ofKerala) in 2001[2] as anon-profit Company.[3] The FSFI advocates to promote the use and development offree software in India. This includes educating people aboutfree software, including how it can help theeconomy of a developing country likeIndia. FSF India regardsnon-free software as not a solution, but a problem to be solved. Free software is sometimes locally calledswatantra software in India.
In 2003, after meeting with FSF founderRichard Stallman, the President of IndiaDr. Abdul Kalam[4][5] urged Indian computer scientists and professionals to usefree andopen-source software[6] in research and development.[7]
The left side of the FSF India logo resembles the famedAshoka Chakra, that also appears on theIndian national flag, while its right half is a depiction of acompact disc. The combination of bothsymbols is intended to draw attention to the similarity between political freedom andfree software, the latter of which theFSF promotes.
TheAshoka Chakra, in addition to being a long-standingBuddhist symbol depicting thewheel of time, also resemblesCharkha ofIndia's Freedom Struggle and thus in the current context, may symbolize theIndian independence movement which resulted in India's freedom fromBritish occupation.
| General | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Software packages | |||
| Community | |||
| Organisations | |||
| Licenses |
| ||
| Challenges | |||
| Related topics | |||
