The Hindu : Kerala News : `Nothing improper in FRIENDS software issue'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 21, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`Nothing improper in FRIENDS software issue'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 20. The Executive Mission Director of Information Kerala Mission (IKM), P.V. Unnikrishnan, has said that the decision to involve a private company, Comtech IT Solutions, for developing the software for the FRIENDS project in 2000 was taken to ensure timely delivery of the required application.

In a statement here, he said the State IT Mission had begun its attempt to establish a hassle-free facility for the citizens to pay their bills on various services like power supply, telephone connection and water supply much before the IKM was functionally separated from the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) in 1999. (This facility was later given the name FRIENDS.)

The IT Mission entrusted the task of developing the FRIENDS software to the C-DIT. However, the entire software team in the C-DIT was by then with the newly formed IKM and, therefore, C-DIT was not equipped to handle independently the work assigned to it. The IKM team too was not in a position to help since the task assigned to it was to implement the panchayat computerisation project. It was not allowed to take up projects outside the scope of panchayat computerisation.

Mr. Unnikrishnan said that, in his capacity as a member of the C-DIT executive committee and the Executive Mission Director of IKM, he had then sent a letter to the C-DIT suggesting that the application could be developed through Comtech IT Solutions with the assistance of Microsoft India Limited. There was absolutely nothing unsolicited or unusual about this, he added.

Background

Giving the background of this proposal, he said that the representatives of Microsoft India Ltd., who used to visit IKM for discussions on the panchayat computerisation project, had expressed interest in the project and said they could arrange to develop a technological solution for the project within a short period by involving Comtech, a member of the Microsoft Software Developers' Forum in Thiruvananthapuram.

"It is true that the proprietor of the firm is a brother of one of the C-DIT employees who was later transferred unilaterally to IKM by C-DIT much later in July 2003. This relationship had no bearing on the decision for outsourcing; at the same time it cannot be a sole reason for disqualification of the firm. The said employee had no say in the decision making process in C-DIT or IKM," Mr. Unnikrishnan said.

He said the cost of the project as well as the cost of replication was considered by the IT Mission before placing the order for the FRIENDS facility in Thiruvananthapuram, taken up as the pilot one. There was no question of any permanent cash flow to any private company. For replication of the FRIENDS facility in other districts, the C-DIT had charged the IT Mission. From the amount received thus, the C-DIT paid Comtech, based on an agreed costing. The Government had issued an order in February 2001 stipulating replication cost of application software as Rs.1 lakh per district, he said.

Comtech had claimed the copyright on the application software for FRIENDS on the basis of the contention that they had developed it independently. However, the High Court noted that even though there was no doubt about the fact that the petitioner was the author of the software, it being a Government work sub-contracted through a Government agency, the copyright vested with the Government. "As far as I know, no action of the IKM or the previous management of the C-DIT had been against the spirit of this judgment. No assignment of copyright was made to Comtech by the C-DIT Registrar in the agreement for replication signed with them. Since there was no agreement on the Intellectual Property Rights issues, it was also stipulated in the MoU that the matter would be discussed and a separate agreement would be signed," Mr. Unnikrishnan said.

He said that, as per the third clause of the MoU signed between Comtech and C-DIT in February 2001, Comtech was to deliver the full documentation and source code of the software to C-DIT once the quality was tested and found acceptable. The C-DIT management did not pursue the matter, or initiate any action to ensure that Comtech complied with the stipulation. The court case cropped up when C-DIT dropped Comtech from the picture and brought in another private company to work on the software, he said.

The IKM team was fully involved in the installation and commissioning of the pilot project of FRIENDS in Thiruvananthapuram. The IKM even deputed one of its employees, Arshad Hameed Khan, for coordinating and monitoring the work of Comtech during the development stage of the FRIENDS software, following a request of the then Registrar-in-charge of C-DIT. "All this was done because contributing to the development of C-DIT as a major IT player in the State was a cherished dream of all the IKM staff, most of whom had been drawn from C-DIT service," he added.

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