Free Software Foundation of India

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The GNU logo, By Niyam Bhushan

1 FSF India
2 The FSF India Logo
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] FSF India

The Free Software Foundation of India, is a sister organisation to the Free Software Foundation. Founded in 2001, as a non-profit organization, it is committed to advocating, promoting and propagating the use and development of free software (swatantra software) in India. This includes educating people about free and open source software and how it can help the economy of a developing country like India. FSF India regards non-free software as not a solution, but a problem to be solved.

In 2003, after meeting with FSF founder Richard Stallman, the President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam [1] [2] urged Indian computer scientists and professionals to use free and open source software [3] in research and development.[4]

[edit] The FSF India Logo

The GNU logo, rendered as a charka

The left side of the FSF India logo resembles the famed Ashoka Chakra, that also appears on the Indian national flag, while it's right half is a depiction of a compact disk. The combination of both symbols is intended to draw attention to the similarity between political freedom and free software, the latter of which the FSF promotes.

The Ashoka Chakra, in addition to being a long standing Hindu symbol of time, also resembles Mahatma Gandhi's charkha (spinning wheel) and thus in the current context, may symbolize the Indian independence movement which resulted in India's freedom from British occupation.